Microrobots swim through blood to deliver drugs: Study

ISTANBUL

Scientists have tested tiny, magnet-controlled robots that can swim through blood vessels to deliver drugs exactly where they’re needed – and then safely dissolve.

Although not yet trialed in humans, the results, published Thursday in the journal Science, mark a promising step toward treating strokes, brain tumors and other hard-to-reach conditions with fewer side effects, experts say.

The microrobots are about the size of a grain of sand. Each is a small gelatin capsule packed with a drug and iron-oxide nanoparticles, which allow doctors to steer it using external magnetic fields. After delivering its payload, the capsule breaks down inside the body.

In the study, researchers guided the robots through the brains of pigs and sheep – animals with blood vessels similar in size to humans – using a clinical magnetic navigation system and real-time X-ray imaging.

The bots moved along vessel walls, swam against flowing blood and reached speeds of nearly half a meter (1.6 feet) per second. In pigs, the team delivered drugs to the exact target more than 95% of the time.

If future studies go well, researchers say the first medical uses of such drug-delivering robots could appear within the next five to ten years.