A Simultaneous Drug Release Scheme for Targeted Drug Delivery Using Molecular Communications

Abstract

In this paper, we consider drug release-time issue in molecular communication-based targeted drug delivery (MC-based TDD) systems. Typically, a trigger source sends out a signal to multiple nanomachines to indicate them when to release the drugs in a simultaneous manner. However, under a practical setting where the nanomachines are located at unequal distances from the source and the propagation delay of an MC channel is proportional to the third power of distance, the trigger signal may arrive at different times causing the nanomachines to release the drugs in a nonsimultaneous manner. This causes release-time errors. Therefore, we propose a simultaneous drug-release scheme to determine the precise time to emit the trigger signal, taking into account the propagation delay information to minimize the release-time errors. Using both analytical and simulation approach, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in reducing the release-time errors, highlighting its robustness to large propagation delays. Additionally, we show that the analytical model is in good agreement with the simulation. INDEX TERMS Molecular communication, nanomedicine, nanonetworks, release-time, targeted drug delivery. TANIA ISLAM received the B.Sc. Engg. degree in CSE from Patuakhali Science and Technology University (PSTU), in 2012, the M.Sc. degree in CS from Jahangirnagar University (JU), in 2014, and the M.Sc. Engg. degree in CSE from Khulna University (KU), Bangladesh, in 2018. She is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in information and communication engineering with Kyungpook

A Molecular Communication-Based Simultaneous Targeted-Drug Delivery Scheme

“…We refer the reader to [46], [47] for more details. [21] reproduces the energy cost model (( 16) in [21]). Therefore, the total energy cost can be defined by:…”

“…Therefore, each nanomachine can release a small fraction of the drug, and the drug's cumulative concentration that would be sufficient to produce apoptosis is expected at the infected site. It is possible to administer single or multiple types of drugs using an MC-based TDD system [7], [21]. The former is called a single-drug-delivery system, while the latter one is called a multi-drug-delivery system.…”

“…Furthermore, the above-mentioned MCbased TDD systems are not tailored to address the SDD problem for nanomachines at random distances. For the first time in the MC-based TDD literature, the author in [21] introduced the SDD of equidistant nanomachines. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the SDD for random distant nanomachines, where a simultaneous release cannot guarantee an SDD due to the propagation delay that varies with the distance [28].…”

“…We consider a 3D diffusive environment without drift in the channel [26], [27]. Unlike the work in [21], where the drug-carrying nanomachines were equidistant from the target, in this paper, different distances for the drug-carrying nanomachines are adopted. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first investigation of SDD for random distances.…”

A TDMA-Based Data Gathering Protocol for Molecular Communication via Diffusion-Based Nano-Sensor Networks

“…Thus, to enhance the performance of MCvD systems, inter-connectivity among the bio-nanomachines is recognized as a highly desired feature and as a result it has been garnering attention [23]- [27]. With biocompatibility as one of its key highlights, MCvD systems are emerging as potential candidates for alternative and novel in-body drug therapy solutions [28]- [33].…”