German scientists from the Max Planck Institute have created what are called micropropellors, or microbots.
These tiny tadpole-like objects are 200 times the width of a human hair.
Microbots can be controlled using magnets to inject medication directly into the place in the eye where it is needed.
An article on a groundbreaking microbot-assisted drug delivery to the eye was published in the latest Science Advances.
This technology is still very far from the work of micro-robots that we see in science fiction films, but scientists are confident that they are going in the right direction.
Scientists have tested micro-bots on eyeballs extracted from dead pigs in a slaughterhouse (pig eyes are very similar to human eyes).
With the help of a syringe, 10 thousand miniature objects were launched into the eyeball at once, and then in just 30 minutes they were delivered from the retina to the back wall of the eye using a magnetic field.
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It turned out to be much faster and more effective than injecting drugs into the eye with eye drops or injections.
Each micro-bot is made of nickel with added magnetic materials, and their surface is made very slippery for easy movement. In practice, their heads will be filled or coated with medication to treat glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, or other eye conditions.
Bots inside the vitreous humor of the eye.
As a rule, for the treatment of these diseases, the medicine in the form of eye drops covers the entire surface of the pupil, and enters the back wall of the eye much later than microbots do.
Due to their miniature size and slippery coating, microbots can easily pass through the vitreous humor, which is a thick gel-like substance that makes up 80% of the eye.
This technology is very promising, but it has not yet been tested on living things, so scientists still have a lot of work ahead.