Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Precision drug delivery remains a significant challenge due to limitations in drug loading, targeted release, precise navigation, and real-time monitoring. Here, the study reports a magnetic microrobot platform (MMP) that integrates high-capacity drug loading, magnetically actuated collective navigation, controlled drug release, and real-time 3D optoacoustic imaging in a single system. The MMP exploits synergistic advantages by embedding hard-magnetic FePt nanoparticles in a degradable ZIF-8 shell, achieving a drug loading efficiency of ≈93.9% and enabling precise release in response to pH changes and radiofrequency-induced heating. Reconfigurable swarm behavior strategies significantly enhance the navigation efficiency of microrobots against physiological blood flows within complex cerebral vasculature. The ex vivo and in vivo experiments further demonstrate strong contrast characteristics of the microrobots, enabling high-resolution visualization of deep vascular structures and dynamic tracking of MMP with real-time 3D optoacoustic imaging. This multifunctional strategy paves the way for clinical translation and precision therapy in complex biological settings.
Source: Advanced Materials
Language: English
Topic: Micro and Nano Robotics
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $6,070
Funders: National Science Foundation, European Commission, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, China Scholarship Council, Swiss Cancer Research Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, H2020 European Research Council, HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Awards: High-resolution bidirectional optical-acoustic mesoscopic neural interface for image-guided neuromodulation in behaving animals, G1171301076, G1256156608, G2937888255, Deep brain stimulation based on the wireless magnetically localised and ultrasonically actuated micro-robot, G434337789, Development of a hybrid scanner for concurrent magnetic resonance imaging, optoacoustic tomography and wide-field fluorescence, G5342641566, Soft-bodied Miniature Mobile Robots
OpenAlex ID: W4415543330