Future of cancer treatment will have mini robots on the front lines 2b286t

O future of cancer treatment gained new allies over the last few years, mainly with the development of technology and the famous Nanotechnology. The endeavor of the time is a type of mini robot that manages to take drugs to the brain to fight tumors installed in the region. To laymen, it seems something simple, unremarkable; however, a deeper analysis shows that the brain is one of the places that is almost impossible to access, either through blood or even using other small medicinal robots – this is due to a specific barrier in the body. 64l4p

Call of blood brain barrier, it is responsible for protecting the Central Nervous System (CNS, for the intimate) against toxic substances and potential invaders, also storing nutrients and other beneficial components. The problem is that this makes the direct istration of drugs against, for example, brain tumors unfeasible, causing the treatment of this form of cancer to be compromised.

Another problem with brain tumors is how invasive the surgeries needed to remove the infected tissue are. In addition to being extremely dangerous, the operations, as a rule, manage to remove only 90% of the tumors present in the region, precisely because the disease spreads in a high-risk area. Nanotechnology, then, is used to try to solve these problems and ensure effectiveness in eliminating tumors, as is the case with the new mini robot that can redefine the future of cancer treatment.

How do you redefine the future of cancer treatment? pl3x

Until then, the transport of substances to fight brain tumors was quite ineffective. Recently, however, a study by Chinese researchers could turn the tide: camouflaging a mini robot with a membrane of Escherichia coli – common bacteria found in our gut – and turning it into a Trojan horse, the researchers managed to insert the tiny construct into the brains of laboratory mice.

It is worth mentioning that the research is still in preliminary stages, which means that human trials will still take time. Even so, it is interesting to see how far the technology is coming, especially in the health area. No wonder we had several robots presented at CES 2021 addressed to needs arising from the pandemic. In any case, if the studies are carried out in humans, we will have a great battle in the future of cancer treatment.

How does the mini robot work? 2k213s

The first aspect to keep in mind is the mobility of small machines. Mini robots are nothing new in the medical field (at least not lately) – some are already being used to repair small-sized internal injuries, deliver medicine more precisely in a certain region and similar tasks. They move using magnetism, photovoltaic energy and locate themselves even through noise.

It's not much different with the robot researched by the Chinese team; the difference lies in how it manages to cross the blood-brain barrier. called neutrobot, named after the way it camouflages itself in neutrophils, the robot was prepared in three key stages that could help the future of cancer treatment:

1. Creation of a magnetic nano gel with the medicines to be istered by the mini robot;
2. Wrap the robot with nano gel in a membrane de E. coli for the immune system to recognize it as a threat;
3. Expose the little one to a neutrophil – category of cell of the immune system – so that it can phagocytose it and, thus, enter the neutrophil.

That's why the nickname Trojan horse was used. In a way, you can consider that the mini robot is smuggling the drugs into the barrier that protects the Central Nervous System, given that it disguises itself as a bacteria to be phagocytosed and, thus, be part of the neutrophil to, only then, gain access to the “other side” of the mentioned barrier. According to the article, the mini robots were able to successfully deliver the drugs to the tumors of mice, which is already a big step.

Going deeper into the means of navigation of the robots, we see that the researchers were able to control the movements of the mini robots by positioning the mouse in a house with a moving magnetic field. Using magnetic energy, the mini robots managed to make their way to the brain barrier, acting practically autonomously, only with adjustments from the in real time.

One of the main obstacles to improving the technology is the fact that robots can be controlled when in group, but researchers have yet to figure out a way to control or even track them individually. This poses a danger in that a mini robot released by the body with a drug designed to destroy tumors is not exactly a good thing. According to research, a swarm behavior swarm, as the article categorizes) by the neutrobots it also helps in the speed of locomotion, promoting faster actions.

It is still too early to take the nanotechnology revolution for granted, especially when it comes to the future of cancer treatment, but research like this is increasingly recurring in the academic world, which means that, soon, testing phases will take place and, consequently, the development of techniques to be applied to humans will also be present. And, of course, not just for tumors, but most likely for other illnesses as well.

The researchers involved in the study are:

• Hongyue Zhang;
• Zesheng Li;
• Changyong Gao;
• Xinjian Fan;
• Yuxin Pang;
• Tianlong Li;
• Zhiguang Wu†;
• Hui Xie;
• QiangHe.

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Sources: reverse | Science Robotics