Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China.
Oujiang Laboratory (Zhejiang Lab for Regenerative Medicine, Vision and Brain Health), Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, 325001, China.
Small. 2023 Mar;19(12):e2206108. doi: 10.1002/smll.202206108. Epub 2023 Jan 1.
Micromotors have led to an unprecedented revolution in the field of cargo delivery. Attempts in this area trend toward enriching their structures and improving their functions to promote their further applications. Herein, novel microneedle-motors (MNMs) for active drug delivery through a flexible multimodal microfluidic lithographic approach are presented. The multimodal microfluidics is composed of a co-flow geometry-derived droplet fluid and an active cargo mixed laminar flow in a triangular microchannel. The MNMs with sharp tips and spherical fuel-loading cavities are obtained continuously from microfluidics with the assistance of flow lithography. The structural parameters of the MNMs could be precisely tailored by simply choosing the flow speed or the shape of the photomask. As the actives are mixed into the phase solution during the generation, the resultant MNMs are loaded with cargoes for direct applications without any extra complex operation. Based on these features, it is demonstrated that with sharp tips and autonomous movement, the MNMs can efficiently penetrate the tissue-like substrates, indicating the potential in overcoming physiological barriers for cargo release. These results indicate that the proposed multimodal microfluidic lithographic MNMs are valuable for practical active cargo delivery in biomedical and other relative areas.
微马达在货物输送领域引发了前所未有的革命。该领域的研究趋势是丰富其结构并提高其功能，以促进其进一步应用。本文提出了一种新颖的微针马达（MNM），用于通过灵活的多模态微流控光刻方法进行主动药物输送。该多模态微流控系统由源自共流几何形状的液滴流体和在三角形微通道中混合的活性货物层流组成。在流动光刻的辅助下，MNM 可从微流控中连续获得具有锋利尖端和球形燃料装载腔的结构。MNM 的结构参数可以通过简单地选择流速或光掩模的形状来精确调整。由于在生成过程中活性物质被混入相溶液中，因此生成的 MNM 可以直接装载货物进行直接应用，无需任何额外的复杂操作。基于这些特点，证明了具有锋利尖端和自主运动的 MNM 可以有效地穿透类似组织的基质，这表明它们在克服货物释放的生理障碍方面具有潜力。这些结果表明，所提出的多模态微流控光刻 MNM 对于生物医学和其他相关领域的实际主动药物输送具有重要价值。
