Nanotechnology

Sperm robots on way to deliver babies

Apart from their natural act, sperms are set to be used as biological motors for transporting drugs, genes and other sperms to help treat infertility and other issues.

Called spermbots – sperms turned into micro-robots – they could be controlled from outside a patient’s body to deliver drugs, and even sperm itself, to parts of the body where it is needed, says a path-breaking research.

Researchers at Dresden Institute for Integrative Nanosciences in Germany are looking for a way to propel micro-robots through bodily fluids safely.

“We thought of using a powerful biological motor to do the job instead and we came up with the flagella of a sperm cell, which is physiologically less problematic,” professor Oliver G Schmidt, director of the institute, was quoted as saying in Gizmag.com that covers new and emerging technologies.

To create these tiny robots, scientists designed microtubes, which are thin sheets of titanium and iron rolled into conical tubes and having a magnetic property.

They put the microtubes into a solution in a Petri dish and added bovine sperm cells, which are similar size to human sperm, said the report.

When a live sperm entered the wider end of the tube, it became trapped near the narrow end.

The scientists also closed the wider end, so the sperm wouldn’t swim out.

The trapped cell pushed against the tube, moving it forward.

Then, the scientists used a magnetic field to guide the tube in the direction they wanted it to go, relying on the sperm for the propulsion, the report said.

Source: Times of India

‘Painful’ pinpricks may soon be history for diabetics

A new nanotechnology-based technique for regulating blood sugar in diabetics may give patients the ability to release insulin painlessly using a small ultrasound device, allowing them to go days between injections – rather than using needles to give themselves multiple insulin injections each day.

The technique involves injecting biocompatible and biodegradable nano particles into a patient’s skin. The nanoparticles are made out of poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) and are filled with insulin.

Each of the PLGA nanoparticles is given either a positively charged coating made of chitosan (a biocompatible material normally found in shrimp shells), or a negatively charged coating made of alginate (a biocompatible material normally found in seaweed).

When the solution of coated nanoparticles is mixed together, the positively and negatively charged coatings are attracted to each other by electrostatic force to form a “nano-network.”

Once injected into the subcutaneous layer of the skin, that nano-network holds the nanoparticles together and prevents them from dispersing throughout the body.

The coated PLGA nanoparticles are also porous. Once in the body, the insulin begins to diffuse from the nanoparticles. But the bulk of the insulin doesn’t stray far – it is suspended in a de facto reservoir in the subcutaneous layer of the skin by the electrostatic force of the nano-network. This essentially creates a dose of insulin that is simply waiting to be delivered into the bloodstream.

Using the new technology developed by Dr. Zhen Gu, senior author of a paper on the research and an assistant professor in the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill, and his team, a diabetes patient doesn’t have to inject a dose of insulin – it’s already there. Instead, patients can use a small, hand-held device to apply focused ultrasound waves to the site of the nano-network, painlessly releasing the insulin from its de facto reservoir into the bloodstream.

The study has been published online in Advanced Healthcare Materials.

Source: Yahoo News