Laminated cubic biodegradable polymer structures for bacteria-based, robotic drug delivery

摘要

Recently, a bacteria-based drug delivery system has been proposed to achieve effective and localized drug delivery. Researchers have shown that flagellated bacteria have a chemotactic property to tumor cells, and they can be used as an energy source for active drug delivery. Our previous results have reported that a circular droplet made by a biodegradable polymer can be used in this bacteria-based, robotic drug delivery. In this paper, using laminated cubic structures made of several layers of biodegradable polymers for bacteria-based microrobot is proposed. The structures are made by laminating polymer layers and then, micromachining them using a deep X-ray synchrotron radiation into 40 μm x 40 μm x 40 μm cubes. The cubic structure is more beneficial in attaching bacteria in only selective surface directions than a circular structure, and in controlling the volume of drugs to be encapsulated with the outer polymer layer.