Researchers have revealed the development of a microrobot capable of utilizing magnets to deliver medications precisely where they are needed, as detailed in recent studies from the Swiss Zurich University of Technology.
This innovative technology has the potential to assist medical professionals in removing clots that lead to strokes, combat infections with antibiotics, and deliver cancer treatments directly to tumors without affecting other areas of the body.
The robot features a small spherical capsule made of a dissolvable gel, with iron oxide nanoparticles added to impart magnetic properties. The researchers can monitor the robots via X-ray technology.
“The blood vessels in the human brain are quite narrow, which limits the capsule’s size,” stated the lead researcher, Dr. Fabian Landers, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Multiscale Robotics, ETH Zurich.
“The technical challenge lies in ensuring that such a tiny capsule possesses adequate magnetic properties.”
The following challenge was maneuvering the robot through a complex network of blood vessels, navigating turns, junctions, and rapid blood flow.
“It’s astonishing how much blood travels through our vessels at such high speeds,” Landers remarks. “Our navigation systems must endure all of this.”
They then devised three methods to maneuver microrobots using electromagnets. Depending on the type of magnetic force applied, the scientists could roll the robot along the container’s walls or direct it towards a specific location.
Employing these strategies, microrobots are capable of traveling along or against the current at speeds of up to 4 mm per second (or 1 inch every 6 seconds).
“Magnetic fields and gradients are optimal for minimally invasive approaches as they penetrate deeply into the body without adverse effects, at least at the intensities and frequencies we apply,” noted the last author, Professor Bradley Nelson, a microrobot researcher at ETH Zurich.
Upon reaching their destination, scientists employed a high-frequency magnetic field to heat the microrobot, causing it to melt its shell and release the drug contained within.
This invention was tested using silicon models that mimicked human and animal blood vessels, as well as the brains of pigs and sheep.
The scientists’ next objective is to initiate human clinical trials, paving the way for this technology to be utilized in hospital operating rooms shortly.
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Source: www.sciencefocus.com
