incredible! Chinese scientists create tiny robots that can swim in blood!

At Harbin Institute of Technology, they have set off a revolution in the treatment of all diseases, teaching micro-nano robots to treat cancer and diabetes.

Chinese scientists have created tiny robots that can swim in the blood, making it possible to deliver drugs to diseased organs. And quite literally treats almost every known disease—from inflammation to cancer.

Chinese engineers were inspired by tardigrades - microscopic animals that look like insects and spiders. Harbin Institute of Technology has developed a medical micro-nano robot that mimics tardigrades. The size of the micro-robot is 20 microns - which is 4-5 times thinner than a human hair. Researchers from Harbin Institute of Technology published their findings in the leading journal Science Advances.

Microrobot is a new word in medicine. As early as the 1980s, scientists dreamed of creating such tiny robots. Remember the American science fiction movie "Inner Space" about how capsules with flying robots can be placed in the human body. Until recently, science fiction seemed like reality.

In the American movie, they wanted to "inject" the miracle capsule into the laboratory rabbit first. In a Chinese laboratory, microrobots were also tested on rabbits.

In appearance, the microrobots look like tardigrades - creatures that can swim easily even against currents. The robot's surface is similar to the cell membrane of red blood cells - and can, therefore, "stick" to the inner walls of blood vessels.

In addition, this film allows you to reduce friction based on the principle of hydration lubrication. For example, microrobots could deliver drugs point-by-point into the core of malignant tumors. In addition, the tiny devices move easily through other environments in the body—from gastric juices to the vitreous humor of the eye.

Microcapsules that can "cross" the human body have been tried before. How strange they are! Spherical, rectangular, with tiny propellers...

All these capsules are difficult to manage. To do this, the patient is placed in a special device with a precisely directed magnetic field. The metallic microcapsules follow magnetic lines of force through the bloodstream - and land with the drug in the "correct" internal organs.

Given the size of the microrobots, they must contend with the strongest electrical currents as they enter the bloodstream. The robot needs to swim 1 body length per second.

The tiny machines swim to the desired organ, and their claws can anchor themselves to any of the slipperiest surfaces.

Microrobots are "assembled" from special polymers (chitosan and alginate), on which magnetic nanoparticles are applied. and place drug particles inside the polymer.

The tardigrade robot created by Harbin Institute of Technology can treat a variety of diseases. For example, anticancer drugs can be delivered to cancerous tissue. In addition, complex drugs "transported" by microrobots will be protected from the corrosive effects of human body fluids. Even through gastric juice, it is not afraid of the action of hydrochloric acid and destructive enzymes.

Many tumors develop in parts of the body that are naturally protected from drugs. For example, in the brain, its blood vessels have the thinnest filter (the so-called blood-brain barrier) to "protect" the brain from poisons and toxins. In this case, the tumor is arguably protected from the drug's attack.

This is why chemotherapy for some cancers is so difficult - the body destroys the drugs, treating them as dangerous aliens. Chinese microrobots can easily trick this "filter" and mimic blood cells to reach the most inaccessible tumors.

There are many other problems with chemotherapy. For example, different parts of the tumor (cortex and interior) require delivery of different drugs or one drug, but at different concentrations.

Also, you cannot inject too much chemotherapy drug - because this has a very large load on the liver, kidneys, lungs, spleen. In recent decades, scientists around the world have been working to create chemotherapy drugs that only accumulate in cancer cells. Bypassing healthy tissue. In fact, the microrobots are able to deliver "magic injections" directly into each affected cell.

Tardigrade microrobots can even treat myocardial infarction. In this case, there is a point at which the heart muscle dies, and stem cells can be delivered to the lesion and then grow into healthy muscle tissue.

The same principle can be used for other cellular diseases. For example, in diabetes - the beta cells of the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas die (they produce insulin) or in Parkinson's disease, when specific neurons in the brain that synthesize the neurotransmitter dopamine die.

Microrobots can also treat complex inflammation and internal injuries. To do this, stem cells and special substances that "cool" harmful enzymes and inflammatory mediators - cytokines, proteases and chemokines - can be delivered to the lesion.

Imagine that in a few years, it may even be possible to completely defeat cancer and diabetes in this way. China's micro blood robots will have a great victory.

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