Tiny Robots Have Successfully Cleared Pneumonia From The Lungs of Mice

Scientists have been able to direct a swarm of swimming robots to clear out pneumonia in the lungs of mice, raising hopes that a similar treatment could be developed in humans.

The microbots are covered with antibiotics. The treatment being targeted and effective is dependent on movement through the lungs.

The mice that were treated with the algae bots all died within three days.

The technology is still in a proof of concept stage.

According to Victor Nizet, a physician and professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego, the microrobots could potentially improve antibiotic penetration to kill bacterial pathogens and save more patients' lives.

A type of white blood cell called the neutrophils are covered with spheres of nanoparticles on the cells. The inflammation produced bybacteria and the body's own immune system can be mitigated by the use of these membranes.

It's the precision that makes this approach work so well, it's the inflammation that is reduced and the fight against infections that are improved.

In order to achieve the same effect in the mice that the microbot treatment did, the injection dose had to be 3,000 times higher.

The results show how targeting drug delivery combined with active movement from the microalgae improves therapeutic efficacy.

After a patient is put on a mechanical ventilator in intensive care, they can get pneumonia caused by the Pseudomonas aeruginosabacteria. The risk of death is greatly increased by the infections.

The researchers are confident that their new method can be scaled up as required, and that it would be easy to administer to the lungs of patients who are not breathing.

Next for the team is more research into how the microbots interact with the immune system, then scaling up the work and getting it ready to be tested on humans.

A chemical engineer from UC San Diego wants to deliver drugs into the lungs. We want to do it in a way that is easy to use and lasts a long time.

We've shown that in this work.

The research was published in a journal.