Ultrasound-activatable and skin-associated minimally invasive microdevices for smart drug delivery and diagnosis

Drug-device-field integration for mitochondria-targeting dysfunction and tumor therapy by home-tailored pyroelectric nanocomposites

In spite of the hypoxia tumor microenvironment, an efficacious treatment with minimal invasiveness is highly desirable. Among common cellular organelles, mitochondria is a common target for inductive cellular apoptosis and tumor proliferation inhibition. Nevertheless, tumor hypoxic circumstances always give rise to poor therapeutic efficiency and instead lead to lesion recurrence and unsatisfactory prognosis. Herein, a home-tailored pyroelectric nanocomposites of BTO@PDA-FA-DOX-EGCG have been developed via a layer-by-layer synthesis to serve a cutting-edge tumor treatment with specific mitochondria-targeting, hypoxia-relieving, chemo-photodynamic performance and high anti-tumor efficacy. In particular, this therapeutic modality is featured as drug-device-field integration (DDFI) by combining chemo-drugs of DOX and EGCG, a commercially available medical laser and physical pyroelectric fields, which synergistically contributed to continuing ROS production and consequently cell apoptosis and tumor growth inhibition. Meanwhile, an anti-tumor mechanism of immune actuation and mitochondria dysfunction was elucidated by analyzing specific biomarkers of mitochondria complexes and MMPs, and therefore this research opened up a potential pathway for advanced tumor treatment by incorporating nanocomposites, medical devices and physical fields in a DDFI manner.

Tailoring Design of Microneedles for Drug Delivery and Biosensing

Microneedles (MNs) are emerging as versatile tools for both therapeutic drug delivery and diagnostic monitoring. Unlike hypodermic needles, MNs achieve these applications with minimal or no pain and customizable designs, making them suitable for personalized medicine. Understanding the key design parameters and the challenges during contact with biofluids is crucial to optimizing their use across applications. This review summarizes the current fabrication techniques and design considerations tailored to meet the distinct requirements for drug delivery and biosensing applications. We further underscore the current state of theranostic MNs that integrate drug delivery and biosensing and propose future directions for advancing MNs toward clinical use.

AcousticRobots: Smart acoustically powered micro-/nanoswimmers for precise biomedical applications

Although nanotechnology has evolutionarily progressed in biomedical field over the past decades, achieving satisfactory therapeutic effects remains difficult with limited delivery efficiency. Ultrasound could provide a deep penetration and maneuverable actuation to efficiently power micro-/nanoswimmers with little harm, offering an emerging and fascinating alternative to the active delivery platform. Recent advances in novel fabrication, controllable concepts like intelligent swarm and the integration of hybrid propulsions have promoted its function and potential for medical applications. In this review, we will summarize the mechanisms and types of ultrasonically propelled micro/nanorobots (termed here as "AcousticRobots"), including the interactions between AcousticRobots and acoustic field, practical design considerations (e.g., component, size, shape), the synthetic methods, surface modification, controllable behaviors, and the advantages when combined with other propulsion approaches. The representative biomedical applications of functional AcousticRobots are also highlighted, including drug delivery, invasive surgery, eradication on the surrounding bio-environment, cell manipulation, detection, and imaging, etc. We conclude by discussing the challenges and outlook of AcousticRobots in biomedical applications.