For the moment, these small devices have shown their effectiveness in the treatment of laboratory rats but they could one day be used to treat humans.
- This is the first study to focus on the use of micro-robots in the treatment of neurological diseases.
- The micro-robots managed to climb slopes inclined at 45°.
A little robot walks around your nervous system to heal you: the idea may seem far-fetched or even scary, but it could soon become a reality. Magnetically aligned nanorods in alginate capsules, called MANiACs, have been developed by US researchers. They are able to release substances into the tissues of the nervous system. In Frontiers in Robotics and AIscientists explain how they designed them.
A more precise technique
Treatment of diseases affecting the central nervous system can be particularly difficult. “Giving drugs by mouth or intravenously, for example, to target cancers or neurological diseases, can affect other areas of the body or nervous system that are not related to the disease“, specifies Lamar Mair, member of Weinberg Medical Physics, one of the industrial partners of the study. The use of more precise tools, in order to target the place where the drug is released, can improve its effectiveness but also reduce side effects.
Micro-robots directed by magnetic fields
The management of this micro-robot was one of the challenges faced by the researchers. To achieve this, they used magnetic fields. “They are not influenced by fabrics and seem to be really safe“, specify the authors of the study. The small robots are enclosed in shells in the shape of spheres and react to magnetic fields. “These properties allow them to travel securely through the body in response to an externally applied magnetic field to direct them to a specific site to release the drug.“, they add. The robots are able to navigate against the flow of fluids, climb slopes and move through neural tissues, such as the spinal cord.
A satisfying experiment conducted on rats
The micro-robots were notably tested in the spinal cord and in the brains of laboratory rats. The researchers set them up to deposit a dye in a specific place, as a substitute for the drug. The experiment was conclusive: the scientists managed to control the micro-robots with a high degree of precision, and they were able to make them return to certain areas, to increase the quantity of substance delivered. “This ability to go back and re-dose certain places (…) is important“, specifies David Cappelleri, one of the authors of this study. “These results are still preliminary and very experimental.he tempers. But we think we’ve succeeded in proving that small, soft, capsule-encased micro-robots have the potential for local, controlled drug delivery in neurological diseases..”
