NANOROBOTS IN HEALTHCARE

Hi Friends!!!

Nanorobots is one of the emerging technologies in the field of healthcare. As it is important for us to be update with latest technologies, here we are going to learn about Nanorobots.

Let’s get into the topic.

WHAT ARE NANOROBOTS?

The Nanorobots or Nanobots was invented by Adriano Cavalcanti. The nanorobots are made of components which are at the size of nanometer. These nanorobots are programmed to carry out a specific task.

When it comes to healthcare, nanorobots have just started to create a revolution. The scientists predict that in 10 years injecting nanorobots into our bloodstream will become a common practice to improve our health condition.

Image Courtesy: analyticinsight.net

HOW ARE NANOBOTS MADE?

The nanobots can be made using materials like proteins, polynucleotides and other inorganic materials like metals, diamond. The properties of nanobots surface plays a key role in determining the solubility of nanobots and its level of interaction with other macromolecules and cell surfaces. The size of nanobots has its contribution in the motion of nanobots towards a desired direction.

The nanobots in healthcare needs to do two specific tasks. One is identifying a specific targeting tissue and other is travelling towards that specific tissue. To perform these function, the nanobots ideally consists of a transporting mechanism, sensors, internal processor and fuel unit.

The sensors are used to identify a specific targeted tissue. It might be a chemical sensor, biological sensor, thermal sensor, optical sensor, magnetic sensor, mechanical sensor. The biological sensors detect the presence of specific tissues based on the biological reaction between the cells.

The transporting mechanism uses a propulsion equipment in nanobots which consists of miniature nanomotors and fuel unit to keep the nanobots alive till the completion of intended activity.

These transporting mechanism derives energy from reactions in the medium, electricity, acoustic and magnetic fields. The direction and speed of nanobots can also be controlled by external computers with the use of super conducting magnets. And the internal processor is used to coordinate all these activities as per the set programmable standards.

The MRI can be used to visualize the movement of nanobots inside human body.

NANOROBOTS IN CANCER TREATMENT

The use of nanorobots in cancer treatment has giving a hope for cancer patients and healthcare professionals all around the world in treating the deadly disease. Cancer is caused due to uncontrolled dividing of cells. The current treatment available is usage of chemotherapy to stop dividing of cells. But one of the disadvantages of chemotherapy is that it can also affect nearby good cells.

This is a scenario where nanobots comes into play. The nanobots exactly targets the specific cancer cells.

The nanorobots after entering into the human bloodstream, identifies and travels near the cancerous tumours. Then the nanobots delivers the blood clotting drugs near the blood vessels entering the group of tumor cells. The blood clotting drugs cuts off the blood entering into the tumour cells thereby helping to shrink the tumour cells and decreasing their spread.

In 2018, researchers also tested this technique in mice. They were successful in reducing cancer cells by cutting of the blood supply into the cancer cells using nanobots.

OTHER HEALTHCARE ADVANCEMENTS OF NANOBOTS

The nanobots are supposed to completely replace the usage of pacemaker in treating the heart conditions in future. This can be possible, because of their miniature nature the nanobots can work of years inside human body without any wear and tear.

Here is one of the most futuristic idea. Research is happening to trace the brain signals using nanobots. Researchers are looking for possible ways to drop nanobots inside the brain using minimally invasive surgery.

Research is going on to use nanobots as artificial red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

Now I hope you have acquired some knowledge about Nanorobots. We will meet again with another valuable healthcare topic.

NOTE: Dear friends!!!... Please do comment a topic related to Biomedical, so that we can discuss it in future blogs.

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