Recent Progress in Magnetically Actuated Microrobots for Targeted Delivery of Therapeutic Agents

Abstract

Therapeutic agents, such as drugs and cells, play an essential role in virtually every treatment of injury, illness, or disease. However, the conventional practices of drug delivery often result in undesirable side effects caused by drug overdose and off‐target delivery. In the case of cell delivery, the survival rate of the transplanted cells is extremely low and difficulties with the administration route of cells remain a problem. Recently, magnetically actuated microrobots have started offering unique opportunities in targeted therapeutic delivery due to their tiny size and ability to access hard‐to‐reach lesions in a minimally invasive manner; considerable advances in this regard have been made over the past decade. Here, recent progress in magnetically actuated microrobots, developed for targeted drug/cell delivery, is presented, with a focus on their design features and mechanisms for controlled therapeutic release. Additionally, the practical challenges faced by the microrobots, and future research directions toward the swift bench‐to‐bedside translation of the microrobots are addressed.

Multimodal microwheel swarms for targeting in three-dimensional networks

“…Actively manipulated microbots present a promising platform for targeted delivery of therapeutic drugs 1 , 2 by swimming through bulk fluid 3 – 6 or by utilizing nearby surfaces to roll 7 – 10 or walk 11 . Using applied magnetic fields, individual microbots, proposed for applications including microsurgery 12 , biofilm eradication 13 , blood clot removal 14 , and stem cell transplantation 15 with structures incorporating helical 16 or flexible components 17 , can travel against fluid flow 18 , 19 or at speeds up to 600 µm/s 20 in quiescent fluid.…”

An Electromagnetically Controllable Microrobotic Interventional System for Targeted, Real‐Time Cardiovascular Intervention

“…Magnetically responsive instrumentation such as magnetic small-scale robots has the potential to offer minimally invasive targeted therapy, remote diagnosis, and precision surgery due to their capability of navigating through the intricate vascular system and accessing hard-to-reach tissues and organs. [1][2][3] Magnetic fields can penetrate biological tissues with minimal interaction with bodily fluids and are safe for patients over a broad spectrum of field intensities and frequencies, [4][5][6] which makes magnetic actuation a powerful technique for manipulating magnetic tools with high precision and control in clinical applications. [7] The past decades have seen a growing interest by physicians and medical practitioners for magnetically actuated robotic tools and devices in the field of interventional medicine, in which the magnetic components act as magnetically responsive units for actively steering interventional devices such as guidewires and catheters.…”

“…Magnetically responsive instrumentation such as magnetic small‐scale robots has the potential to offer minimally invasive targeted therapy, remote diagnosis, and precision surgery due to their capability of navigating through the intricate vascular system and accessing hard‐to‐reach tissues and organs. [ 1–3 ] Magnetic fields can penetrate biological tissues with minimal interaction with bodily fluids and are safe for patients over a broad spectrum of field intensities and frequencies, [ 4–6 ] which makes magnetic actuation a powerful technique for manipulating magnetic tools with high precision and control in clinical applications. [ 7 ]…”

Efficient Removal of Pb(II) from Aqueous Systems Using Spirulina-Based Biohybrid Magnetic Helical Microrobots

“…The complex fabrication of such catalytic micro-/nanorobots also restricted the applications. Besides, magnetically actuated micro-/nanorobots have attracted much attention due to their precise wireless control and programmable and harmless features for wide applicable scenarios. , Thereon, to combine the magnetic microrobotic technique with superior adsorption nanomaterials as well as ideal natural biotemplates could achieve extremely versatile platforms toward heavy metal removal.…”