Nanomotor

In nature, many organisms are capable of self-organizing into collective groups through local communications to perform complex tasks that individuals cannot complete. To date, the reported artificial microswarms either rely on toxic chemical reactions for communication or lack the hierarchical controllability and functionality, which is unfavorable for practical applications. To this end, this exploits the ion-exchange reaction enabled hierarchical swarm composed of cationic ion exchange resin and magnetic microspheres of internal information exchange...

Bacterial infections remain a formidable threat to human health, a situation exacerbated by the escalating problem of antibiotic resistance. While alternative antibacterial strategies such as oxidants, heat treatments, and metal nanoparticles (NPs) have shown potential, they come with significant drawbacks, ranging from non-specificity to potential environmental concerns. In the face of these challenges, the rapid evolution of micro/nanomotors (MNMs) stands out as a revolutionary development in the antimicrobial arena...

Micro/nanoplastics (M/NPs) in water have raised global concern due to their potential environmental risks. To reestablish a M/NPs free world, enormous attempts have been made toward employing chemical technologies for their removal in water. This review comprehensively summarizes the advances in chemical degradation approaches for M/NPs elimination. It details and discusses promising techniques, including photo-based technologies, Fenton-based reaction, electrochemical oxidation, and novel micro/nanomotors approaches...

Micro/nanomotors (MNMs) have evolved from single self-propelled entities to versatile systems capable of performing one or multiple biomedical tasks. When single MNMs self-assemble into coordinated swarms, either under external control or triggered by chemical reactions, they offer advantages that individual MNMs cannot achieve. These benefits include intelligent multitasking and adaptability to changes in the surrounding environment. Here, we provide our perspective on the evolution of MNMs, beginning with the development of enzymatic MNMs since the first theoretical model was proposed in 2005...

Artificial nanomotors are self-propelled nanometer-scaled machines that are capable of converting external energy into mechanical motion. A significant progress on artificial nanomotors over the last decades has unlocked the potential of carrying out manipulatable transport and cargo delivery missions with enhanced efficiencies owing to their stimulus-responsive autonomous movement in various complex environments, allowing for future advances in a large range of applications. Emergent kinetic systems with programmable energy-converting mechanisms that are capable of powering the nanomotors are attracting increasing attention...

We report a Janus mesoporous organosilica/platinum (MOS/Pt) nanomotor for active targeted treatment of suppurative otitis media, as a new type of multi-functional ear drop. The efficient propulsion of MOS/Pt nanomotors in hydrogen peroxide ear-cleaning drops significantly improves their binding efficiency with Staphylococcus aureus and enhances their antibacterial efficacy.

The progression of self-powered micro/-nanomotors (MNMs) has rapidly evolved over the past few decades, showing applications in various fields such as nanotechnology, biomedical engineering, microfluidics, environmental science, and energy harvesting. Miniaturized MNMs transduce chemical/biochemical energies into mechanical motion for navigating through complex fluidic environments with directional control via external forces fields such as magnetic, photonic, and electric stimuli. Among various propulsion mechanisms, buoyancy-driven MNMs have received noteworthy recognition due to their simplicity, efficiency, and versatility...

Sonodynamic therapy offers a highly accurate treatment for bacterial infections; however, its antibacterial efficacy is hindered by bacterial biofilms that limit the penetration of sonosensitizers. Herein, a nitric oxide (NO)-driven mushroom-like Janus nanomotor (BT@PDA-La) based on the unilateral coating of polydopamine (PDA) on piezoelectric tetragonal barium titanate (BT) and further modified with l-arginine (l-Arg) on the PDA side is fabricated. In the infected microenvironment with high levels of H2 O2 , NO is produced unilaterally from BT@PDA-La, thus leading to its self-propelled movement and facilitating its permeability in the biofilm...

Over the past decades, the development of nanoparticles (NPs) to increase the efficiency of clinical treatments has been subject of intense research. Yet, most NPs have been reported to possess low efficacy as their actuation is hindered by biological barriers. For instance, synovial fluid (SF) present in the joints is mainly composed of hyaluronic acid (HA). These viscous media pose a challenge for many applications in nanomedicine, as passive NPs tend to become trapped in complex networks, which reduces their ability to reach the target location...

The combination of DNA nanotechnology and Nano Gold (NG) plasmon has opened exciting possibilities for a new generation of functional plasmonic systems that exhibit tailored optical properties and find utility in various applications. In this review, the booming development of dynamic gold nanostructures are summarized, which are formed by DNA self-assembly using DNA-modified NG, DNA frameworks, and various driving forces. The utilization of bottom-up strategies enables precise control over the assembly of reversible and dynamic aggregations, nano-switcher structures, and robotic nanomachines capable of undergoing on-demand, reversible structural changes that profoundly impact their properties...

Light-powered micro- and nanomotors based on photocatalytic semiconductors convert light into mechanical energy, allowing self-propulsion and various functions. Despite recent progress, the ongoing quest to enhance their speed remains crucial, as it holds the potential for further accelerating mass transfer-limited chemical reactions and physical processes. This study focuses on multilayered MXene-derived metal-TiO2 micromotors with different metal materials to investigate the impact of electronic properties of the metal-semiconductor junction, such as energy band bending and built-in electric field, on self-propulsion...

Design of engineered cells to target and deliver nanodrugs to the hard-to-reach regions has become an exciting research area. However, the limited penetration and retention of cell-based carriers in tumor tissue restricted their therapeutic efficiency. Inspired by the enhanced delivery behavior of mobile micro/nanomotors, herein, urease-powered platelet cell motors (PLT@Au@Urease) capable of active locomotion, tumor targeting, and radiosensitizers delivery were designed for boosting radiosensitization. The engineered platelet cell motors were constructed by in situ synthesis and loading of radiosensitizers gold nanoparticles in platelets, and then conjugation with urease as the engine...

As emerging nanosystems, nanomotors have been applied in the active treatment of many diseases. In this paper, Pt@chitosan-loaded melatonin asymmetrical nanomaterials embedded with L-serine (S, kidney injury molecule 1-targeting agent) were constructed to alleviate acute kidney injury (AKI). The Janus nanocarriers arrived at the renal injury site via the bloodstream and exhibited high permeability. Because of melatonin distribution in the kidneys combined with H2 O2 -stimulated O2 release, the administration of the Janus nanosystem resulted in active treatment through the motion of nanomotors by asymmetrical O2 release...

Enzyme-powered nanomotors have demonstrated promising potentials in biomedical applications, especially for catalytic tumor therapy, owing to their ability of self-propulsion and bio-catalysis. However, the fragility of natural enzymes limits their environmental adaptability and also therapeutic efficacy in catalysis enabled tumor therapy. Herein, polyoxometalate nanozyme-based light-driven nanomotors were designed and synthesized for targeted synergistic photothermal-catalytic tumor therapy. In this construct, the peroxidase-like activity of the P2W18Fe4 polyoxometalates-based nanomotors can provide self-propulsion and facilitate their production of reactive oxygen species thus killing tumor cells, even in the weakly acidic tumor microenvironment...

The treatment outcomes of oral medications against ulcerative colitis (UC) have long been restricted by low drug accumulation in the colitis mucosa and subsequent unsatisfactory therapeutic efficacy. Here, we constructed high-performance pluronic F127 (P127)-modified gold shell (AuS)-polymeric core nanotherapeutics loading with curcumin (CUR). Under near-infrared irradiation, the resultant P127-AuS@CURs generated transient mild photothermia (TMP; ∼42°C, 10 min), which facilitated their penetration through colonic mucus and favored multiple cellular processes, including cell internalization, lysosomal escape, and controlled CUR release...

Nowadays, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases caused by venous thromboembolism become main causes of mortality around the world. The current thrombolytic strategies in clinics are confined primarily due to poor penetration of nanoplatforms, limited thrombolytic efficiency, and extremely-low imaging accuracy. Herein, a novel nanomotor (NM) is engineered by combining iron oxide/perfluorohexane (PFH)/urokinase (UK) into liposome nanovesicle, which exhibits near-infrared/ultrasound (NIR/US) triggered transformation, achieves non-invasive vein thrombolysis, and realizes multimodal imaging diagnosis altogether...

Nanomaterials capable of dual therapeutic effects of chemodynamic therapy (CDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) is an efficacious strategy in cancer treatment. It is still a challenge to achieve complete apoptosis of tumor tissue in CDT/PTT due to the poor permeability of nanomaterials in tumor tissue. Herein, we prepared a dual-source driven Pt/FePc@Mn-MOF spindle-like Janus nanomotor by a facile oriented connection growth method for computed tomography (CT) imaging-guided CDT and PTT. The high catalase (CAT)-like activity of nanomotors allows the generation of oxygen (O2 ) bubbles by catalyzing the decomposition of endogenous H2 O2 , which alleviates the hypoxic state of the tumor microenvironment (TME) and simultaneously drive nanomotors...

Ferroptosis is a non-apoptotic form of cell death that is dependent on the accumulation of intracellular iron that causes elevation of toxic lipid peroxides. Therefore, it is crucial to improve the levels of intracellular iron and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in a short time. Here, we first propose ultrasound (US)-propelled Janus nanomotors (Au-FeO x /PEI/ICG, AFPI NMs) to accelerate cellular internalization and induce cancer cell ferroptosis. This nanomotor consists of a gold-iron oxide rod-like Janus nanomotor (Au-FeO x , AF NMs) and a photoactive indocyanine green (ICG) dye on the surface...

Swimming microrobots that are actuated by multiple stimuli/fields display various intriguing collective behaviors, ranging from phase separation to clustering and giant number fluctuation; however, it is still chanllenging to achieve multiple responses and functionalities within one colloidal system to emulate high environmental adaptability and improved tasking capability of natural swarms. In this work, a weak ion-exchange based swarm is presented that can self-organize and reconfigure by chemical, light, and magnetic fields, showing living crystal, amorphous glass, liquid, chain, and wheel-like structures...

In recent years, nanomotors have been developed and attracted extensive attention in biomedical applications. In this work, a magnetically-guided oxygen-propelled CoPt/gold nanosheet motor (NSM) was prepared and used as an active self-propelled platform that can load, transfer and control the release of drug carrier to cancer cells. As a drug carrier, the microcapsules were constructed by the layer-by-layer (LbL) coating of chitosan and carboxymethyl cellulose layers, followed by incorporation of gold and magnetite nanoparticles...