Efficient Preparation of a Magnetic Helical Carbon Nanomotor for Targeted Anticancer Drug Delivery.

The applications of nanomotors in the biomedical field have been attracting extensive attention. However, it remains a challenge to fabricate nanomotors in a facile way and effectively load drugs for active targeted therapy. In this work, we combine the microwave heating method and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to fabricate magnetic helical nanomotors efficiently.

Enzyme-Powered Tubular Microrobotic Jets as Bioinspired Micropumps for Active Transmembrane Drug Transport.

In nature, there exist a variety of transport proteins on cell membranes capable of actively moving cargos across biological membranes, which plays a vital role in the living activities of cells. Emulating such biological pumps in artificial systems may bring in-depth insights on the principles and functions of cell behaviors. However, it poses great challenges due to difficulty in the sophisticated construction of active channels at the cellular scale.

Enzyme-Powered Hollow Nanorobots for Active Microsampling Enabled by Thermoresponsive Polymer Gating.

Achieving molecular sample capture at micro/nanoscales while integrating functions of controllable loading and real-time monitoring of cargo molecules is of great significance in the development of intelligent micro/nanorobots. Herein, we prepare a temperature-responsive microsampling nanorobot by encapsulating metal (Au) nanodots inside hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles and grafting a temperature-responsive polymer, poly(-isopropylacrylamide), on their external surface. The molecular gate of nanochannels accessing the internal hollow reservoir can be switched between "open" and "closed" states by regulating the temperature, allowing on-demand loading and releasing of small molecules.

Active nanomotors surpass passive nanomedicines: current progress and challenges.

Artificial nanomotors show advantages over traditional nanomedicines in biomedical applications due to their active locomotion by converting various energy sources into mechanical force . Currently, nanomotors are attracting wide attention in diagnosis and therapy towards clinical applications. In this perspective, we summarize recent developments of nanomotors in biomedical applications, including targeted drug delivery, biological barrier penetration, and diagnostics and cancer treatment.

Magnetic Nanorobots as Maneuverable Immunoassay Probes for Automated and Efficient Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay.

As a typical, classical, but powerful biochemical sensing technology in analytical chemistry, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) shows excellence and wide practicability for quantifying analytes of ultralow concentration. However, long incubation time and burdensome laborious multistep washing processes make it inefficient and labor-intensive for conventional ELISA. Here, we propose rod-like magnetically driven nanorobots (MNRs) for use as maneuverable immunoassay probes that facilitate a strategy for an automated and highly efficient ELISA analysis, termed nanorobots enabled ELISA (nR-ELISA).

Droplet-Based Microfluidic Preparation of Shape-Variable Alginate Hydrogel Magnetic Micromotors.

This article introduces a facile droplet-based microfluidic method for the preparation of FeO-incorporated alginate hydrogel magnetic micromotors with variable shapes. By using droplet-based microfluidics and water diffusion, monodisperse (quasi-)spherical microparticles of sodium alginate and FeO (Na-Alg/FeO) are obtained. The diameter varies from 31.

Magnetic Nanomotor-Based Maneuverable SERS Probe.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful sensing technique capable of capturing ultrasensitive fingerprint signal of analytes with extremely low concentration. However, conventional SERS probes are passive nanoparticles which are usually massively applied for biochemical sensing, lacking controllability and adaptability for precise and targeted sensing at a small scale. Herein, we report a "rod-like" magnetic nanomotor-based SERS probe (MNM-SP) that integrates a mobile and controllable platform of micro-/nanomotors with a SERS sensing technique.