{"id":3908,"date":"2017-09-15T17:41:19","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T09:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ljdevice.com.tw\/?p=3908\/"},"modified":"2017-11-20T13:25:29","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T05:25:29","slug":"tiny-robots-crawl-mouses-stomach-heal-ulcers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ljdevice.com.tw\/en\/tiny-robots-crawl-mouses-stomach-heal-ulcers\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny robots crawl through mouse\u2019s stomach to heal ulcers"},"content":{"rendered":"

SHORT SHARP SCIENCE<\/a>\u00a016 August 2017<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tiny robots can heal him. \u00a0Mark Bowler\/Nature Picture Library\/Getty<\/p>\n

By\u00a0Timothy Revell<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tiny robotic drug deliveries<\/a>\u00a0could soon be treating diseases inside your body. For the first time, micromotors \u2013 autonomous vehicles the width of a human hair \u2013 have cured bacterial infections in the stomachs of mice, using bubbles to power the transport of antibiotics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe movement itself improves the retention of antibiotics on the stomach lining where the bacteria are concentrated,\u201d says\u00a0Joseph Wang<\/a>\u00a0at the University of California San Diego, who led the research with\u00a0Liangfang Zhang<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Learn more about the future of robots:\u00a0See our expert talk at New Scientist Live<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

In mice with bacterial stomach infections, the team used the micromotors to administer a dose of antibiotics daily for five days. At the end of the treatment, they found their approach was more effective than regular\u00a0doses of medicine.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The tiny vehicles consist of a spherical magnesium core coated with several different layers that offer protection, treatment, and the ability to stick to stomach walls. After they are swallowed, the magnesium cores react with gastric acid to produce a stream of hydrogen bubbles that\u00a0propel the motors around<\/a>. This process briefly reduces acidity in the stomach.\u00a0The antibiotic layer of the micromotor is sensitive to the surrounding acidity, and when this is lowered,\u00a0the antibiotics are released.<\/p>\n

Suppress stomach acid<\/h2>\n

Without this\u00a0reduction, antibiotics and protein-based pharmaceuticals can be destroyed before they do any good. This mechanism means that\u00a0drugs normally used to treat bacterial infections, such as ulcers, normally have to be taken alongside proton pump inhibitors that suppress gastric acid production. Long-term use of\u00a0proton pump inhibitors can lead to some nasty side effects including headaches, diarrhoea, fatigue and even anxiety or depression. So being\u00a0able to use tiny vehicles<\/a>\u00a0instead is a big step forward.<\/p>\n

After 24 hours, the stomach acid of the mice returned to normal levels, and as the micromotors are mostly made of biodegradable materials, they were\u00a0dissolved by the stomach, leaving no harmful residues.<\/p>\n

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Read more:\u00a0Tiny robots swim the front crawl through your veins<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really nifty and impressive application.\u00a0Micromotors<\/a>\u00a0are still new, but their impact will be big,\u201d says\u00a0Thomas Mallouk<\/a>\u00a0at Pennsylvania State University.<\/p>\n

Samuel Sanchez<\/a>\u00a0at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems says the new work is \u201cpushing the field of micro-motors forward\u201d and shows the benefits of using micromotors over traditional approaches.<\/p>\n

The next steps are to look at a larger animal study, followed by eventual trials in humans. \u201cThere is still a long way to go, but we are on a fantastic voyage,\u201d says Wang.<\/p>\n

Journal reference:\u00a0Nature Communications<\/i>,\u00a0DOI: 10.1038\/s41467-017-00309-w<\/a><\/p>\n

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Medical microbots<\/h3>\n

Micromotors\u00a0<\/a>have huge promise in many different areas. Earlier this month, for example, researchers demonstrated that they could be used to\u00a0propel drugs through the blood-brain barrier<\/a>. Most drugs never make it from the bloodstream into the brain – the blood-brain barrier is just too good at its job. However, by\u00a0using micromotors fuelled by glucose, the team increased penetration by 400 per cent. This could have big implications for treating diseases like Parkinson\u2019s or Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The tiny vehicles also look like they will be effective for neutralising biological and chemical weapons like sarin gas. Normally, large machinery is required to help mix the neutralising compounds in a way that renders the weapons useless, but this machinery is often not available in the field. Wang found that using around 1.5 million micromotors – about 15 millilitres\u2019 worth, was\u00a0as effective as using a clunky mechanical mixer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source:Tiny robots crawl through mouse\u2019s stomach to heal ulcers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SHORT SHARP SCIENCE\u00a016 August 2017 Tiny robots can heal him. \u00a0Mark Bowler\/Nature Picture Library\/Getty By\u00a0Timothy Revell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industrienachrichten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ljdevice.com.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ljdevice.com.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ljdevice.com.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ljdevice.com.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ljdevice.com.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3908"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ljdevice.com.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4315,"href":"https:\/\/ljdevice.com.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions\/4315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ljdevice.com.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ljdevice.com.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ljdevice.com.tw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}