Robots That Destroy Heart Infections in Minutes

Using two coordinated magnetic robots to deliver antibiotics directly eliminates the need for high-risk surgery and long-term treatment.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed miniature magnetic robots that can deliver drugs directly to the site of an infection in the heart. If successful in future trials, this technology may reduce the treatment time for some heart infections from four to six weeks to a day or less. Treatment of serious heart infections with antibiotics usually requires several weeks of IV injections. However, the drug may not reach the infected tissue well enough, forcing doctors to increase the dose of antibiotics or perform risky heart surgery.

To solve this problem, researchers have designed two small magnetic robots, each of which is approximately the size of a grain of rice. These robots work together to bring the drug to the desired point and provide the possibility of targeted antibiotic administration. Two robots to deliver the drug accurately. This system consists of two parts. The robot first connects to the heart tissue at the site of infection and acts like a docking station. The second robot carries the medicine and after magnetically connecting to the first part, it gradually releases the antibiotic at the site of infection. The guidance of the robots is done using external electromagnetic fields; Therefore, they do not need a battery or an internal motor to move. Also, the possibility of changing the drug-carrying robot without moving the robot attached to the tissue can make it easier to inject the next doses of the drug.

Reduction of treatment time from a few weeks to a few hours

Researchers have tested this technology on simulated heart models and real pig heart tissue. In these tests, the robots were able to move and even navigate against simulated blood flow. If the technology works as expected, a process that now requires four to six weeks of intravenous antibiotic therapy, they say, could be done in minutes to about an hour in the future. However, this schedule is currently a research estimate and its effectiveness in treating human patients has not been proven.

Possible applications beyond heart disease

The developers believe that this technology can be used in the future for targeted delivery of drugs to difficult areas of the body, including the spread of some cancers. Focusing the drug on the desired site may help to increase the accuracy of the treatment. The next step of the researchers is to test the robots on models that more realistically reproduce the muscle contractions and heartbeat-like movement. Before clinical use, the safety and efficacy of this technology should be investigated in the next experimental stages.