Magnet-Steered Nano-Fish Could Deliver Drugs and Sweep Body Toxins

dkatana writes: David Warner writes on InformationWeek how "nanoengineers" from UC San Diego have created microscopic fish powered by hydrogen peroxide that use magnets to steer themselves. "The "fish" are powerful enough to swim through your bloodstream, removing toxins or bringing medicine directly to crucial parts of your body, as cells in your blood stream do. Given enough time, the fish could be used to deliver drugs directly to cancer tumors or parts of your body that are too fragile for surgery."

Comments

So far, so good

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

So is there hydrogen peroxide naturally in blood, or it can be safely introduced, to drive these things? (It reacts with platinum particles in the tail to provide thrust, and are externally guided by magnetism via iron in the nose.)

Drug delivery is by ramming into the area in question and dissolving, releasing the payload (already proven in previous, simpler experiments.)

Bad particle "eating" is done by binding the fish with some chemical that attaches to it.

Afterwards people can say:

[nospam007]

"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish"

Powered by hydrogen peroxide?

[GrumpySteen]

You know what else hydrogen peroxide reacts to? Blood!

Blood contains he enzyme catalase which really likes to react with hydrogen peroxide to make a foamy mess that would not be the healthiest thing to have in your blood vessels.

I was skeptical

[kencurry]

at first, nanobots delivering drugs in the bloodstream and all...

But then, I read that they were "3D printed" nanobots, and I was all like "Whoahh, these guys are onto something!"