CANCER ASSASSINS COULD PURGE THE BODY OF THE DEADLY DISEASE – Scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich have released a study that shows the potential to engineer and grow micro-robots that can target cancer cells in the body for pinpoint delivery of cell-killing drugs that won’t harm any other cells other than the ones targeted. The robots were tested on cancerous mice, whose cancers were targeted 3 times more efficiently than traditional treatments did, with none of the additional harm to the body the other methods produce.
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Scientists use magnets to deliver cancer-killing ‘micro-robots’ into the body – interestingengineering.com
Excerpt:
The invention, although exciting, is not entirely new. In November of 2021, researchers created a new way of moving chemotherapy drugs to the site of cancer cells with microbots.
The innovation was said to substantially enhance cancer treatment because it enabled the direct injection of chemo drugs into the cancerous cells.
The tiny microbots developed were guided to their goal (in this case, cancer cells) via magnets. Once there, they released the drug payload.
Composed of 3D-printed hydrogel in the shape of various animals (including a butterfly, crab, and fish), the little robotic critters exhibited gaps on the inside where engineers could stuff particles.
In April of 2022, researchers engineered a slimy turd-like robot powered by magnets that they said could one day be used to grab things from inside the body.
It consisted of a mixture of a polymer called polyvinyl alcohol, borax, and particles of neodymium magnets responsible for the magnetic attraction that leads to the slime’s movements.
The new study was published in the journal Science.
Study abstract:
Biohybrid bacteria–based microrobots are increasingly recognized as promising externally controllable vehicles for targeted cancer therapy. Magnetic fields in particular have been used as a safe means to transfer energy and direct their motion. Thus far, the magnetic control strategies used in this context rely on poorly scalable magnetic field gradients, require active position feedback, or are ill-suited to diffuse distributions within the body. Here, we present a magnetic torque–driven control scheme for enhanced transport through biological barriers that complements the innate taxis toward tumor cores exhibited by a range of bacteria, shown for Magnetospirillum magneticum as a magnetically responsive model organism. This hybrid control strategy is readily scalable, independent of position feedback, and applicable to bacterial microrobots dispersed by the circulatory system.
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