Tan Rong, Yang Xiong, Lu Haojian, Shen Yajing
Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China.
State Key Laboratory of Industrial Control and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China.
Nat Commun. 2024 Jun 4;15(1):4761. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49043-0.
Microswimmers are considered promising candidates for active cargo delivery to benefit a wide spectrum of biomedical applications. Yet, big challenges still remain in designing the microswimmers with effective propelling, desirable loading and adaptive releasing abilities all in one. Inspired by the morphology and biofunction of spermatozoa, we report a one-step formation strategy of polymorphous sperm-like magnetic microswimmers (PSMs) by developing a vortex turbulence-assisted microfluidics (VTAM) platform. The fabricated PSM is biodegradable with a core-shell head and flexible tail, and their morphology can be adjusted by vortex flow rotation speed and calcium chloride solution concentration. Benefiting from the sperm-like design, our PSM exhibits both effective motion ability under remote mag/netic actuation and protective encapsulation ability for material loading. Further, it can also realize the stable sustain release after alginate-chitosan-alginate (ACA) layer coating modification. This research proposes and verifies a new strategy for the sperm-like microswimmer construction, offering an alternative solution for the target delivery of diverse drugs and biologics for future biomedical treatment. Moreover, the proposed VTAM could also be a general method for other sophisticated polymorphous structures fabrication that isn't achievable by conventional laminar flow.
微游动器被认为是用于主动输送货物的有前途的候选者，有望惠及广泛的生物医学应用。然而，要设计出同时具备有效推进、理想装载和自适应释放能力的微游动器，仍然面临巨大挑战。受精子的形态和生物功能启发，我们通过开发一种涡旋湍流辅助微流控（VTAM）平台，报告了一种多形态精子样磁性微游动器（PSM）的一步形成策略。所制备的PSM是可生物降解的，具有核壳头部和灵活的尾部，其形态可通过涡旋流转速和氯化钙溶液浓度进行调节。得益于类似精子的设计，我们的PSM在远程磁驱动下既展现出有效的运动能力，又具备对材料装载的保护封装能力。此外，在藻酸盐-壳聚糖-藻酸盐（ACA）层涂层改性后，它还能实现稳定的持续释放。本研究提出并验证了一种构建精子样微游动器的新策略，为未来生物医学治疗中多种药物和生物制剂的靶向递送提供了一种替代解决方案。此外，所提出的VTAM也可能是一种用于制造其他传统层流无法实现的复杂多形态结构的通用方法。
