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Posted: 21st January 2015

Tiny 'machines' travel inside animal for first time
Mouse
The tiny 'machines' were fed to mice.
Method could offer an efficient way to deliver drugs into the stomach

Tiny 'machines' have travelled inside a living animal for the first time, the BBC reports.

Medical applications for micro-machines involve the release of drugs in specific locations within the body. However, until now, they have only been tested in laboratory cell samples.  

A team from the University of California, led by professors Liangfang Zhang and Joseph Wanhg, fed the tiny motors to mice.

Made of polymer tubes coated with Zinc, the motors are only 20 micrometers long, no thicker than the width of a strand of human hair.  

In the stomach, zinc reacts to the acid and produces bubbles of hydrogen, which then push the machines into the lining of the stomach, where they attach.  As the machines dissolve, they deliver the medication.

The team believes that the method could offer an efficient way to deliver drugs into the stomach, to treat peptic ulcers and other illnesses.

In their paper, published in ACS Publications, they say that further work is needed to "further evaluate the performance and functionalities of various man-made micro-motors in living organisms". However, they add that the study represents the very first step toward such a goal.



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