Research is under way to "take" a very small robot to cure disease

ByNatty

Nano-robots that can accurately attack the cancer tumor by moving the bloodIn recent years, research on nanobiotechnology is progressing to move a robot inside the body to treat diseases. Then, researchers at the University of California at San Diego are studying ways to treat diseases by swallowing extremely small robots that are only as thick as human hair. In experiments using mice, ordinary dosing It proved to be more effective than the method.

Micromotor-enabled active drug delivery for in vivo treatment of stomach infection | Nature Communications
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00309-w

Tiny robots crawl through mouse's stomach to heal ulcers | New Scientist
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2144050-tiny-robots-crawl-through-mouses-stomach-to-heal-ulcers/


This robot is a micro-motor that autonomously moves inside the body, and it is structured to cover the magnesium spherical core with multiple layers. There are different layers in each of the layers, there are layers that treat as medicines, others work to stick to the gastrointestinal walls and allow micro motors to maintain the shape of spheres. When the core of magnesium enters the inside of the mouse, it responds to stomach acid and generates hydrogen bubbles, which is the motive power for moving the motor, but at the same time, this process means that the acidity in the stomach will be lowered instantaneously. Because antibiotics may weaken the effect due to gastric acid, it is designed to release the drug only when the acidity in the stomach is low.


Researchers took micro-motors delivering antibiotics to mice infected with bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract every day for 5 days. As a result, it turned out that it was easier to use micro motors when taking medicines than usual.

Since gastric acid may weaken the effect of antibiotics, when taking antibiotics or protein-based medicines so far, it was necessary to take medicines that work to weaken the secretion of gastric acid. However,Proton pump inhibitorSide effects such as headaches · diarrhea · fatigue · anxiety · melancholy will also appear when long-term taking place. Therefore, the method of effectively delivering antibiotics with a small robot can be said to be one step to make major changes in future treatment.

ByJamie

The stomach acid level of the mouse returned as usual within 24 hours after taking the robot. Since micro motors are made of substances that can be decomposed by microorganisms, they do not leave harmful substances in the body.

Following the results of this study, Professor Thomas Mallouk of Pennsylvania State University said, "This is a very clever and amazing medicine, micro motors are a new approach, but the impact this will have on people will be significant," comment.Max · Planck InstituteMr. Samuel Sanchez also stated that it is "a research that advanced the field of micro motors" and showed that it would be more profitable than the previous approaches.

In the future, we plan to conduct experiments using larger animals with a view to clinical trials.