CHINA has built a tiny worm-like robot to crawl into people’s brains – and they claim it could revolutionise surgery and save thousands of lives.
Chinese scientists claim the near microscopic “microfibrebot” can reduce the risk of brain aneurysm bleeds and “starve” brain tumours forcing them to shrink.
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The tiny robot would be inserted into people’s brains using a thin, flexible catheter tube.
Shaped like a helix, the little less than half a millimetre-long robot would then “crawl” through the brain.
Doctors would control the tiny bot using magnets – and the robot’s changing flexible shape would allow it to block problem blood vessels.
It would then be able to fix aneurysms or “starve” tumours.
The bot was developed by Chinese scientists from a range of universities, including in Wuhan, Hefei, and Shanghai.
The research and the robot’s design were published in the leading journal Science Robotics.
Brain aneurysms and tumours are some of the leading causes of death worldwide.
They require extensive and complicated procedures for treatments
More than 750,000 people die every year, either from life-threatening conditions or procedural complications.
One of the first steps taken by doctors to treat such diseases is cutting the blood flow by inserting a thin tube into the target area and sealing off blood vessels.
This method, however, is limited due to the “poor stability and steerability” of the tube inserted into the brain, the experts argued.
They said it also exposes surgeons to radiation for long periods as the procedure is performed manually under an X-ray.
We envisage that our magnetic soft microfibrebots will pave the way for the untethered robotic embolisation of cerebral aneurysms and brain tumours in the future
Chinese Researchers
And so they believe the little robot is the best way forward for this type of challenging work on the brain.
The tiny robot – just about half a millimetre, can change size by elongating or contracting – and can be steered up and down using magnetic fields.
Its coiled shape will allow for more control and accuracy than other conventional methods used to treat these conditions
It can then be steered by doctors who would be able to monitor its movement using X-ray imaging.
Melisa Yashinski, the associate editor of the journal, wrote: “The microfibrebot, composed of a magnetised fibre coiled into a helix shape, can conform to different vessel sizes and performs corkscrew propulsion when subjected to an external magnetic field.
“These proposed robots provide a controllable alternative to conventional catheter-based embolisation.”
Once the robot is at the target, it can perform embolisation to reduce bleeding from aneurysms.
And to treat brain tumours, the sophisticated bots can send particles into a vessel branch to “starve the tumour for accelerated removal”.
Cutting off blood flow to a tumour causes it to stop growing – and can even shrink the tumour by killing cells, according to the paper.
While testing on a model vessel system, the developing team found that these robots had a particle-blocking percentage of up to 88 per cent.
The robots were also tested on the hind legs of rabbits where the robots continued to block blood flow and tests on the rabbit organs found “no inflammation or pathological abnormalities”.
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While researchers have cautioned that the robot is still in its early stages of development, they concluded that the robot has extreme potential to revolutionise brain surgeries.
“We envisage that our magnetic soft microfibrebots will pave the way for the untethered robotic embolisation of cerebral aneurysms and brain tumours in the future,” the researchers said.