Intelligent sensing based on active micro/nanomotors

Collagenase motors in gelatine-based hydrogels

Nano/micromotors outperform Brownian motion due to their self-propulsive capabilities and hold promise as carriers for drug delivery across biological barriers such as the extracellular matrix. This study employs poly(2-(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) polymer brushes to enhance the collagenase-loading capacity of silica particle-based motors with the aim to systematically investigate the impact of gelatine viscosity, motors' size, and morphology on their propulsion velocity. Notably, 500 nm and 1 μm motors achieve similar speeds as high as ∼15 μm s-1 in stiff gelatine-based hydrogels when triggered with calcium. Taken together, our findings highlight the potential of collagenase-based motors for navigating the extracellular matrix, positioning them as promising candidates for efficient drug delivery.

Nano/Micromotors for Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy: Innovative Designs to Improve Biocompatibility

Nano/micromotors are artificial robots at the nano/microscale that are capable of transforming energy into mechanical movement. In cancer diagnosis or therapy, such "tiny robots" show great promise for targeted drug delivery, cell removal/killing, and even related biomarker sensing. Yet biocompatibility is still the most critical challenge that restricts such techniques from transitioning from the laboratory to clinical applications. In this review, we emphasize the biocompatibility aspect of nano/micromotors to show the great efforts made by researchers to promote their clinical application, mainly including non-toxic fuel propulsion (inorganic catalysts, enzyme, etc.), bio-hybrid designs, ultrasound propulsion, light-triggered propulsion, magnetic propulsion, dual propulsion, and, in particular, the cooperative swarm-based strategy for increasing therapeutic effects. Future challenges in translating nano/micromotors into real applications and the potential directions for increasing biocompatibility are also described.