Engineers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), have developed a treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that uses microscopic robots or microrobots coupled with green algae. The experimental treatment, which has been tested successfully in mice, significantly reduced IBD symptoms and promoted the healing of damaged colon tissue with no toxic side effects. Their work was published in Science Robotics in a paper titled, “ Biohybrid microrobots regulate colonic cytokine levels and modulate epithelium barrier restoration in inflammatory bowel disease .
” The scientists led by Liangfang Zhang, PhD, and Joseph Wang, PhD, both professors in UCSD’s Department of Chemical and Nanoengineering, engineered so-called algae-MΦNP-robots, which are tiny robots made up of inflammation-fighting nanoparticles chemically attached to green algae cells. Once ingested, the algae cells move around the colon distributing the attached nanoparticles. “The beauty of this approach is that it’s drug-free—we just leverage the natural cell membrane to absorb and neutralize pro-inflammatory cytokines,” said Zhang.
The nanoparticles are made of a biodegradable polymer that is coated with macrophage cell membranes. In IBD cases, macrophages are overly activated causing them to produce large quantities of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-⍺ and interleukin-6. These cytokines, in turn, bind to receptors on the macrophages and trigger them to produce eve.
