2.B.149.  The Enzyme-powered Tubular Microrobotic Jets for Drug Transport (ETMJ-DT) Family 

Wang et al. 2023 developed bionic micropumps for active transmembrane transport of molecular cargos across living cells that is realized by enzyme-powered microrobotic jets. By immobilizing urease onto the surface of a silica-based microtube, the prepared microjet is capable of catalyzing the decomposition of urea in surrounding environments and generating microfluidic flow through the inside channel for self-propulsion, which is verified by both numerical simulation and experimental results. Therefore, once naturally endocytosed by the cell, the microjet enables the diffusion and, more importantly, active transport of molecular substances between the extracellular and intracellular ends with the assistance of generated microflow, thus serving as an artificial biomimetic micropump. By constructing enzymatic micropumps on cancer cell membranes, enhanced delivery of anticancer doxorubicin into cells as well as improved killing efficacy are achieved, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the active transmembrane drug transport strategy in cancer treatment (Wang et al. 2023).

References: