“CelluVR Experience” by Matt Higgins, Sandra Marshall is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
The Human body is a super-evolved structure capable of making its own metabolism however it gets affected by many factors that can produce diseases causing a wrong functioning in the body. Humans have invented ways to treat and cure some of the diseases that affect the human body thought the ages. Some of the diseases have been exterminated as is the case of smallpox that was eradicated in 1980 by the first vaccine invented by Edward Jenner. However, there are others diseased that cannot be treated and may not have cure. In order to treat it, medical staff have been working in substances and products that can detect and help human body to eradicate it before it started. The medicine evolves as the times have being passed, creating more ways to treat and detect illness but at the same time implementing knowledge from other areas such as technology.
Science and Technology have united their path in order to create a science that can help in the creation of new ways to detect and treat diseases. One of the areas of investigation that have emerge from this union is called nanotechnology. According to Webster Dictionary, nanotechnology is defined as the manipulation of materials on an atomic or molecular scale specially to build microscopic devices (such as robots). This innovation in medical technology is used in diverse areas such as: medicine, new energy systems, information storage devices, super-strong meta materials, smart windows and walls, ocean cleaning micro sponges, replicator or molecular assembler (Diamandis, URL).
The advance technologies cover inside the nanotechnology is under the medical investigation and is called Nano medicine. Nano medicine is defined as “the comprehensive monitoring, control, construction, repair, defense and improvement of all human biological systems, working from the molecular level using engineered devices and nanostructures, ultimately to achieve medical benefit” (Andersson,8). The focus of Nano medicine is mostly related to the design and development of drug delivery system in human body “the focus of Nano medicine is always on Nano interactions within a framework of a larger devices or biologically with sub-cellular system.” The importance of Nano medicine relays inside the benefits that brings to the medical world by broadening the medical tools, knowledge, and therapies currently available to clinicians (Webster).
The implementation of nanotechnology inside the medical world in order to improve the treatment and detection of diseases have been performed in the last decades giving an important device called nanorobots. Nanorobots were invented by Adriano Cavalcanti inspired by the model of nanobioelectronic for implementation in areas such as: environmental monitories, brain aneurysm, diabetes, cancer detection and cardiology. Robots build of a robot built on the scale of nanometers are called nanorobots. Nanorobots are not a machine that has moving part and conventional control system, they are created using Nano materials with intelligence programmed by genetic modification in their building blocks. (Garg). These nanorobots are built with nanoscales or molecular material and its measurement are from 0.1-10 micrometers, generally seen to interact in the same level of bacteria and virus. They can be used to travel inside the human body to fight some diseases or repair organs, but other functions can also be performed, such as cleaning the environment, detecting pests or cleaning up an oil spill.
In medicine, using nanorobots have become one of the most useful techniques in medicine that provides gives scientists a light of hope in order to detect diseases in human body before they develop. Nanorobots are applied in different areas of medicine according to each the way that they can work in specific regions of human body by moving themselves independently and complete the designed task. Even that nanorobots are not working, there are high expectation in the way that their use will revolutionize the medical field.
Nanorobots work with specific code of programming. Nanorobots are molecular delivery trucks. Due to their programming, they can release their load when the state of the cell is not correct, in other words when the cell is sick, achieving precision above the usual methods. The nanorobots have, within their structure, characteristics of which a sensor agent stands out, which consists of one or more chemical chains which are activated depending on their objective and a useful load that can be a drug or a fluorescent substance for detection. When the detection agents are activated, the nanorobot delivers the useful charge to the cell, this works in the same way as the logical DNA gates which work as follows: when a gate finds the correct input molecules, it releases its molecule output In turn, this output molecule can help activate another gate of the circuit so that the latter operates as a cascade of dominoes where each falling falls to the next.
Inside the ranges of nanorobots created there is an important discovery in the cancer treatment. Investigators of Chonnam National University created the first nanorobot that can detect and help treat cancer. This nanorobot is called Bacteriorobot which consist in a modify bacteria that is used to attract substance release by cancer cell. These bacteriorobots are designed to have receptor that link to the secretion of the disease tissue, permitting them to localize the cancer. These nanorobots are capable of localized the cancer cell and deliver drugs to them. This technique is used to detect solid cancer such as: breast cancer or colorectal tumors but it has a great potential that can be used to treat other tumors (Garg). There is another robot created with the same purpose. Shaw Douglas in coordination with George Church and Ido Bachelet investigators of Harvard University, design a nanorobot using the open software Cadnano and construct them using the origami technique of DNA, technique that is capable of make DNA structures. The prototypes consist of DNA structure linked by 2D chains and thereby folded into 3D structures. This device is capable of take a substance that kill the cancer cells by giving it lethal charge when they recognize the cell in the giving coordinate (Douglas, 832). Each cell has a different coordinate which makes the work more precise. It has been tasted in cancer cells, lymphoma and leukemia sending coordinate for the cell suicide. There are two types of nanorobots that are used for cancer treatment. There are: Dendrimers are nanorobots capable of adjust their shape and size, uses to recognize cancer cells. They are considered a promise in the medical ambit as a drug delivery vehicle capable of carries large doses of anti-cancer drug. The Nano shells are another type of nanorobots. These robots are designed with a special core of silica that is capable of absorb near-infrared light which give the possibility to create a heat that is lethal for the cancer cell.
Nanorobots have created advantages in the detection and treatment of cancer are the speed and velocity of nanorobots. Nanorobots have a specific task to perform which created lest error in the delivery of drugs to specific cell, in this case, the cancer cell. Also, the quantity of the drugs is carefully placed with the necessary amount required to treat the infected cells which created a high level of precision. However as in any other treatment, there are some disadvantages. The cost of nanorobot design is high and complicated. In actual, the nanorobots do not have a way to respond to the immune body’s system. Also, the high use of nanorobots can lead to a decrease in the functionality and efficiency of the immune system. In addition to the social level, the nanorobots can be used to cause damage society if the felt in the wrong hands and can be used as a bioweapon against certain people. In addition, relies on the possibility that if a nanorobot can replicate to themselves when the process of replication is altered, they can develop a harmful version of nanorobots that can cause serious problem to the human body.
Another important advantage in the medicine besides nanorobots that treat cancer are the nanorobots capable of clean the blood. The nanorobots were developed by engineers Joseph Wang and Liangfang Zhang, professors in the Department of Nano engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School. These robots are capable to swim in the blood removing harmful bacteria along with the toxins they produce. They are powered by ultrasound waves that make nanorobots acts without chemical fuel which makes increase the level of action in the blood by leading them to camouflage with their targets. The nanorobots were created by coating gold nanowires with a hybrid of platelet and red blood cell membranes so they can easily perform two tasks that consist of behaving like plaquettes that bind to pathogens and acting like red blood cells which absorb and neutralize the toxins produced by these bacteria (Labios). The nanobots test process, the inventors inserted nanobots into a portion of blood infested with MRSA and their toxins in order to clean it. After five minutes, the blood had three times less infested particles which one more time support how viable the treatment of cleaning fluid can be using nanorobots.
Nanorobots are knows as the promise of the future. They still being studied in order to increase their abilities in order to perform new task in the treatment of disease. There are many prototypes being developed by the investigator that will be working in different areas of the body with an assigned task to perform. The goal is created a device capable to realize diminutive task with highly precision that human cannot perform. Nanorobots are the promise of the medicine of the future. Today, there are different fields of robotic technology. One of them is nanorobotics.
It is a robotics field where groups of engineers in robotics and biotechnology are located complex robots of very small size. For several engineers, scientists and doctors believe that nanorobotics applications are virtually unlimited. Fighting cancer, doctors hope to use nanorobots to treat cancer patients in the future leading them to have a great improvement in the field of science. Also, the doctors think that the nanorobots could either attack tumors directly using lasers, microwaves or ultrasonic signals or they could be part of chemotherapy treatment, delivering medication directly to the cancer site (R. Devasena). The nanorobotics technology will lead the medicine too has a great impact, for example, the nanorobots will breaking blood clots, blood clots can cause complications ranging from muscle death to a stroke. The nanorobots could travel to a clot and break it. This application is one of the most complex and sophisticated uses for nanorobots in the future. In the future the nanorobots can be applicate in any field of medicine because today in the world exists a technology that is very advances that led the humanity to has greatly advanced
There are different kind of prototypes that will be performing a specific assigned job according to the need of the body. The investigators have created a series of prototypes with specific characteristics, there are four types in total of nanorobots that will do specific task. Microbivore nanorobots are nanorobots that will act like the white blood cells in the human body but with a higher rate of speed in killing bacteria. This prototype will be able to eliminate bacterial infection in minutes differently than the normal antibiotics does. The way that they work is by adding themselves to the bacteria. After the bacteria is attached to the antibody, it is moved inside the nanorobot by an arm in order to be destroyed and released as an inoffensive fragment. Another type of nanorobot is the Respirocyte nanorobots. They act like the red blood cell of the human body but are designed to transport higher amount of oxygen to through the blood which will be so useful for people who have anemia. The way that they will work is by containing a tank with high pressure oxygen, sensors to determine the concentration of oxygen in the blood stream and a valve that release oxygen when the blood needs it. In addition, there are the Clottocyte nanorobots. These nanorobots are designed to act like plaquettes which are responsible to stop the blood flow whenever there is an injury. The clottocyte will stores fiber until there is an injury. As soon as the injury is produced, they will create the clot in a fraction of the time that plaquettes does. In addition, there are the Cellular repair nanorobots. These robots would be capable to perform surgical procedures with more precision which can prevent the damage cause by the clumsy scalpel.
Another application of nanorobots relates to the area of hematology. The design of nanorobots can be beneficial to develop tasks from emergency transfusions of non-blood oxygen-carrying compounds to restoring primary hemostasis. Investigator has under-designed a nanorobot dubbed a respirocyte. This device is designed to accomplish three functions while it keeps traveling through the bloodstream (Sahadee). The device will be capable to collect oxygen and deliver it to a different part of the bloodstream, collect carbon dioxide from the tissue and delivered to the lungs and finally metabolize glucose in order to increase its own functions. The nanorobot is designed to carry 236 more oxygen per unit that cell blood carries normally. This advantage will provide an advantage of a lack of risk in blood transfusions.
Despite providing an advantage by carrying oxygen and carbon dioxide, the nanorobots will be used as helpers in the process of homeostasis which leads with healing blending and promote the vessel repair. The nanorobots may help to do the process of homeostasis in a quicker way than the five minutes that the body normally takes in the blending time. In addition, there are current investigations in the developing of two more types of nanorobots. The first is called clottocyte and consist of two nanorobots that will contain a mesh as thin as 0.8 nm and inundated with hemostasis promoting proteins, which is fired at areas of vessel injury to carry out hemostasis. It will prevent the patient from infections with pathogens and the potential of triggering an immune response (Sahadee). Microbivores is another nanorobot that will be used inside the hematology area in medicine. The device is capable to bind to the pathogens and antigens that enter our body from VHI to E. Coli. These prototypes are considered to work 80 times more effective than the human body does being capable to eradicate septicemia within an hour of administration. By having nanorobots capable to help the immune system to counter infection, it will open new avenues in the treatment of these and diseases (Sahadee).
Inside the field of dentistry in medicine, nanorobots have found a weight range of implementations. According to Yamaan Saadeh, B.S. and Dinesh Vyas, M.D, nanorobots can be incorporate in almost any aspect of dental care. Nanorobots can be used to administer analgesia by drinking a substance that contains millions of nanorobots. The device containing the substance will travel thought micron-sized dental tubules to reach the pulp which will permit a more precise delivery of the substance to the zone where it is needed. There are other procedures that may be implementing the use of nanorobots such as root canal fillings by implementing camera that will give a real-time image reducing the guesswork. In order to treat infections, nanorobots can be developed with a high level of proteins that will bind specific target pathogens. In addition, there are prototypes of nanorobots that will be used to treat dental conditions such as dentine hypersensitivity. In order to treat this condition, nanorobots will be capable of penetrating into the dentinal tubules in order to perform selective ablation within the hypersensitive teeth blocking the stimuli that produce pain. Also, nanorobots can be programmed to do tasks such as the tooth repositioning via direct manipulation of periodontal tissues, the dental cosmetic work via the direct replacement of enamel layers or devices put directly in daily dental products that will enhance dental care.
Inside the range of possible benefits of nanorobots to medicine, there is an important advantage inside the area of surgery, specifically with those types of delicate procedures such as neurosurgery. Nanorobots can be used to improve the detection of pathology, minimally invasive intracranial monitoring, and pharmaceutical delivery, amongst many others. Due to its size and the advance in the investigation in manufacturing microelectromechanical systems, nanorobots may be implemented in order to a manipulated cell on a molecular scale. Inside a priority in the implementation of nanorobot in the neurosurgery can be mentioned as the procedure related to the damage in nerves and spinal cord injury (Sahadee). The patient with those types of medical problems now can distinguish a light inside the procedure due to the advances in the development of nanorobots that can be used to reconnect the nerves in the injuries by using a Nano knife and electrical fields to manipulate polarizable objects in space, controlling the movement of axon within a surgical field. After a controlled transection of the axons and maneuvering them into position using dielectrophoresis, a fusion between the two ends can be induced by electrofusion, polyethylene glycol or laser-induced cell fusion, among other methods. This advantage lead to more precise surgeries in the medical area.
In addition, there are more advances that are under investigation such as improvement in oncology which include nanorobots capable of screening nanorobot circulating and monitoring for the detection of neoplasia and nanorobot capable of making direct drug delivery to cancerous tissue to limit systemic toxicity and increase the effectiveness and finally nanorobots that will be used to do mapping of margins of tumor to improve resection during surgery. In another area that is developing nanorobots in order to treat disease in the Vascular System. Scientifics are formulating devices that can perform tasks such as screening for atherosclerosis, cancer, aneurysms, and localization of bleeding site for assisting embolization in aneurysm rupture in order to be treated (Calvani). The implementation of nanorobots in these are will improve the quality of treatment in the patient and the possibility to decrease the level of mortality in population.
Scientific around the entire world are working to makes possible the creation of new techniques that can be used to treat diseases and eradicate the disease. The nanotechnology has opened many avenues in many areas including medicine by producing the “little helper” or nanorobots. Nanorobots are capable to perform many activities that thought human hands will not be capable of being done. Nanorobots can work alone or in teams to exterminate diseases and treat other conditions. Some nanorobots are used already such as the nanorobot implemented in cancer detection while others remind us as prototypes being developed by a complex number of characteristics used in many areas but with a unique objective of being able to help the human body to stay alive in a healthy way by restructure bodies to be strong and capable to fight with diseases.
Through nanotechnology and more specifically nanobots people in the future could have cell surgery, which would mean a great improvement in the quality of treatments, as well as a notable reduction in the aggression suffered by patients. The nano robots can be used for the cure or treatment of human heart diseases, starting with Nano surgery in individual cells, which allows extremely precise personal supervision and high precision in injuries. Also, nano robots that use an atomic level Nano chips capable of performing complex genetic analyzes, inexhaustible energy sources, the building of buildings with nanobots, elimination of pests and contamination on a molecular scale. The nano robots have come to stay and without doubt the implementation of future prototypes in the different areas of medicine that are helping provide many advantages such as problems, prevention and risk in the treatment of diseases, which can be called Little helpers in the world.