Biomimetic magnetobacterial microrobots for active pneumonia therapy

Abstract

Immense progress in synthetic micro-/nanorobots with diverse functionalities has been made for biomedical applications during the last decade. However, there is still a huge gap for miniature robots to realize efficient therapy from in vitro to in vivo level. Here click chemistry is used to introduce curcumin-loaded hybrid cell membrane nanoparticles to magnetotactic bacteria AMB-1 with magnetic actuation, thus creating biohybrid microrobots CurNPs@2TM-AMB-1 for active and efficient pneumonia therapy in vivo. In the presence of an external rotating magnetic field, the developed AR are capable of moving controllably and wirelessly, and efficiently scavenging inflammatory factors and SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus due to the existing receptors from the cell membrane cloaking strategy, thereby inhibiting the virus invasion and reducing the damage of inflammation to the lungs. Due to the active movement, AR significantly increase and prolong the accumulation of Cur in the lungs in vivo, thus alleviating the pneumonia and regulating pneumonia microenvironment. The designed hybrid microrobot system, with magnetic actuation and active neutralization of inflammatory factors and virus, shows great promise as a potential platform for pneumonia therapy. Efficient therapy with biocompatible microrobots has huge potential but still faces challenges. Here, the authors show that magnetobacterial microrobots can be used to actively neutralize inflammatory factors and pseudovirus, by enhancing the tissue penetration of the hybrid cell membranes nanoparticles.