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"Many persistent sinus infections involve biofilms – colonies of bacteria that group together to resist efforts to kill them. Now, researchers have developed biofilm-blasting bots that could handily deal with these, and other, bacterial infections. ...
They're actually single-atom copper-doped bismuth oxyiodide particles that are each about the size of a speck of dust.
In simpler terms, the particles ... contain a mix of the elements bismuth, oxygen and iodine along with the addition of a single atom of copper.
In tests, the particles were delivered via a tube into the sinus cavities of rabbits who had sinus infections. Then, the microbots were steered to the infection site using a magnetic field and X-ray imaging.
Once on location, the bots were beamed with light delivered by an optical fiber, which triggered them to get to work. They do this by heating up, which allows them to thin out the thick mucus associated with the biofilm. Then, they penetrate deeper into the biofilm itself and release reactive oxygen species, chemicals that blast the biofilm apart by killing the bacteria in the colony. ..."
From the abstract:
"Microrobotic techniques are promising for treating biofilm infections located deep within the human body. However, the presence of highly viscous pus presents a formidable biological barrier, severely restricting targeted and minimally invasive treatments.
In addition, conventional antibacterial agents exhibit limited payload integration with microrobotic systems, further compromising therapeutic efficiency.
In this study, we propose a photocatalytic microrobot through a magnetically guided, optical fiber–assisted therapeutic platform specifically designed to treat bacterial infections in deep mucosal cavities.
The microrobots comprising copper (Cu) single atom–doped bismuth oxoiodide (BiOI), termed CBMRs, can be guided and tracked by real-time x-ray imaging. Under external magnetic actuation, the illuminated region from the magnetically guided optical fiber synchronously follows the CBMR swarm, enabling effective antibacterial action at targeted infection sites. Upon continuous visible-light irradiation, the resultant photothermal effect substantially reduces the viscosity of pus on inflamed mucosal tissues, enhancing the penetration capability of the CBMR swarm by more than threefold compared with baseline conditions. Concurrently, atomic-level design of CBMRs facilitates robust generation of reactive oxygen species, enabling efficient biofilm disruption and reductions in bacterial viability. We validated the effectiveness of this integrated optical fiber–assisted microrobotic platform in a rabbit sinusitis model in vivo, demonstrating its potential for clinically relevant infection therapy."
Tiny robots offer new hope for sinus infection relief
This illustration shows how the system could work with human patients
