(Photo: scitechdaily)
Barcelona: Spanish scientists have created a nano-robot that can kill up to 90 percent of cancerous tumors in the bladder by entering the bloodstream.
The robot, created by scientists from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia and CIC Biomagon in partnership with the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), has a diameter of 450 nanometers. And to see it, its image has to be magnified two million times.
Bladder cancer is the most common type of cancer affecting men. Although the mortality rate is low, all tumors recur within five years.
In a study on mice, researchers found that a single use of these tiny robots could eliminate the need for multiple treatments for tumors.
Current treatments for bladder cancer include surgery and chemotherapy, which can cost upwards of $65,000. The reason for this is that the patient has to be examined several times in the hospital to reduce the spread of the tumor. However, new research claims that nano-robots can achieve this feat in one go.
The surface of the robots used in the study was coated with gold nanoparticles, which allowed the researchers to see how the robots traveled through the blood and attacked tumors.
In the research, the team released these nano-robots into the blood of mice with bladder cancer and watched them spread throughout the body. The urease enzyme in the robot reacts with the urea in the urine to move the robot and the radioactive iodine destroys the cancerous tumor.
The team found that the nanobots raised the pH balance of the area near the tumor, breaking down its extracellular matrix, causing the tumors to sponge up, and the robots absorbed and treated the tumors with radioactive iodine.
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