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Demonstrates targeted drug delivery in pulmonary environments, suggesting a new approach for respiratory treatments.
Intrabronchial drug delivery is an important method for treating respiratory diseases. Precise and selective deep-lung delivery of drugs is still challenging through inhalation administration and bronchoscopes, due to the passive transport and insufficient maneuverability in narrow and tortuous distal airways. Herein, a magnetic-driven soft robot with a multi-legged structure is developed for minimally invasive and precise targeted drug delivery in the lung. The robot exhibits multimodal and adaptive locomotion in complex airways, relying on its soft nature. A magnetothermal-triggered and on-demand liquid drug release mechanism is integrated onto the robot. Rolling, stick-slip and crawling motion modes can be achieved, and the mode transition is realized to enhance the adaptivity. Precise navigation in complex environments and the distal bronchial tree of a phantom is realized. The magnetothermal-induced drug release is also demonstrated. Ex vivo distal navigation, targeted drug delivery and retrieval of the robot in a porcine lung are validated.
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Zhang et al. (2026) studied this question.
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