Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Chow Yuk Ho Technology Center for Innovative Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Adv Mater. 2022 Aug;34(34):e2201888. doi: 10.1002/adma.202201888. Epub 2022 Jul 19.
Biofilm eradication from medical implants is of fundamental importance, and the treatment of biofilm-associated pathogen infections on inaccessible biliary stents remains challenging. Magnetically driven microrobots with controlled motility, accessibility to the tiny lumen, and swarm enhancement effects can physically disrupt the deleterious biostructures while not developing drug resistance. Magnetic urchin-like capsule robots (MUCRs) loaded with magnetic liquid metal droplets (MLMDs, antibacterial agents) are designed using natural sunflower pollen, and the therapeutic effect of swarming MUCR@MLMDs is explored for eradicating complex mixtures of bacterial biofilm within biliary stents collected from patients. The external magnetic field triggers the emergence of the microswarm and induces MLMDs to transform their shape into spheroids and rods with sharp edges. The inherent natural microspikes of MUCRs and the obtained sharp edges of MLMDs actively rupture the dense biological matrix and multiple species of embedded bacterial cells by exerting mechanical force, finally achieving synergistic biofilm eradication. The microswarm is precisely and rapidly deployed into the biliary stent via endoscopy in 10 min. Notably, fluoroscopy imaging is used to track and navigate the locomotion of microswarm in biliary stents in real-time. The microswarm has great potential for treating bacterial biofilm infections associated with medical implants.
从医疗器械上去除生物膜至关重要，而对于难以到达的胆管支架上与生物膜相关的病原体感染的治疗仍然具有挑战性。具有受控运动能力、可进入微小管腔的磁驱动微型机器人以及群体增强效应，可以在不产生耐药性的情况下物理破坏有害的生物结构。使用天然葵花花粉设计了装载有磁性液态金属液滴（抗菌剂）的磁海胆状胶囊机器人（MUCR），并探索了群体 MUCR@MLMD 用于消除从患者收集的胆管支架内复杂混合细菌生物膜的治疗效果。外部磁场触发微群的出现，并诱导 MLMD 改变其形状为具有锐利边缘的球体和棒体。MUCR 的固有天然微刺和 MLMD 获得的锐利边缘通过施加机械力积极破坏密集的生物基质和多种嵌入式细菌细胞，最终实现协同生物膜消除。微群在 10 分钟内通过内窥镜精确且快速地部署到胆管支架中。值得注意的是，荧光透视成像用于实时跟踪和导航微群在胆管支架中的运动。微群在治疗与医疗器械相关的细菌生物膜感染方面具有巨大潜力。
