1 . When delivering medications to patients, one of the most effective methods is direct injection (注射) into the bloodstream using a needle. But this can be an uncomfortable experience, especially for kids or adults with a fear of needles. While patients do have the option to take oral pills instead, drugs containing large molecules (分子) are not absorbed effectively this way.
Now, inspired by octopus suckers (章鱼吸盘), researchers from China and Switzerland have designed a needle-free alternative: a tiny, drug-filled, cup-like patch (贴片) that sticks to the inside of the cheeks. The device is easily accessible, and it can be removed at any time and the drug gets absorbed through the lining of the inner cheek, the team reports in a paper in Science Translational Medicine.
To test the design, the team 3D printed the suckers. They loaded each with the drug and stuck them inside the cheeks of three beagles, a kind of dog which has a similar inner cheek lining to humans. For comparison, they also delivered the drug to beagles via a pill. After three hours, the team found that drug blood concentrations in dogs with the patch were more than 150 times higher than in the dogs that took a tablet. They also found patches worked effectively for drugs with large molecules.
40 healthy human volunteers self-applied water-filled patches to see how well they would stay on while talking and moving their mouths. After 30 minutes, only five of the 40 patches had fallen off, which was because of improper placement. Most volunteers said they would prefer a patch over injections for daily applications.
Still, the team only tested the patch for a short time so they would need to find out what would happen if it was used repeatedly. They’d also need to determine which drugs would work with the technology: the target is large molecules, such as those used to treat obesity or osteoporosis, but they can’t be too large to fit in the cup.
1. Why do the researchers develop the patch?| A．To help patients overcome the fear of needles. |
| B．To enable kids to swallow tablets smoothly. |
| C．To offer a better way of drug delivery. |
| D．To guarantee the efficiency of oral pills. |
| A．It is technologically possible to 3D print the patches. |
| B．The cheek lining of dogs is similar to that of humans. |
| C．Patches fall easily with their mouth movement. |
| D．Drugs are absorbed better through patches than pills. |
| A．Innovative and profitable. |
| B．Effective and user-friendly. |
| C．Affordable and accessible. |
| D．Flexible and long-lasting. |
| A．The related issues to be solved. |
| B．The risk of using patches repeatedly. |
| C．The way to identity large molecules. |
| D．The trouble of improving the technology. |
2 . Metin Sitti at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, and his colleagues have developed tiny robots called “microrollers” that can carry cancer drugs and selectively target human breast cancer cells. The team drew inspiration for the design of the robots from white blood cells in the human body, which can move along the walls of blood vessels (血管) against the direction of blood flow.
The microrollers are round and made from glass microparticles. One half of the robot was coated with a thin magnetic nanofilm (磁性纳米膜) made from nickel and gold. The other half was coated with the cancer drug doxorubicin as well as molecules that recognize cancer cells.
The team tested the robots using mouse blood and artificial channels lined with human endothelial cells—the kind of cells that line the inner walls of our blood vessels. The robots were exposed to a mixture of cancerous and healthy tissue. The microrollers selectively attached to the cancer cells and were activated using UV light to release the doxorubicin.
By applying magnetic fields, the team was able to control the movement of the microrollers, both with and against the flow of blood. The microrollers can reach a speed of up to 600 micrometers per second. “If you come to a spot where you need to take the right path and if you miss it, then you could go back and go to the right one,” says Setti.
In future, the researchers want to use other methods to start the drug release, such as heat or near-infrared light. They also plan to try making microrollers out of materials that would break down in the body over a few weeks or months.
The team hopes to test the microrollers in animals soon. “The rollers need to carry enough cancer drugs, which is why we need to have them in large numbers,” says Setti. “But since we can locally take drugs to the right target, we don’t need huge dosages (剂量).”
1. What can the microrollers be used for?| A．Repairing blood cells. | B．Delivering drugs. | C．Improving blood flow. | D．Performing operations. |
| A．Their shape. | B．Their advantage. | C．Their design. | D．Their application. |
| A．Their direction can be adjusted. | B．They might miss the target cells. |
| C．They might get stuck in the blood. | D．Their speed can change automatically. |
| A．Put the microrollers to clinical use. | B．Sell the microrollers in large quantities. |
| C．Tear the microrollers down in the body. | D．Experiment with the microrollers further. |
