For the first time in the world, they use light to direct the white blood cells of zebrafish
2022-07-15
In the future, if you are sick, in addition to taking medicine, there are more simple and efficient treatment options, such as illuminating the body with light, you can remotely control white blood cells, so as to actively mobilize the immune capacity of the body. This is not science fiction. Chinese scientists have realized that white blood cells can be turned into "medical micro robots" with light in vivo, which can independently control the activation and movement of white blood cells, which is the first case in the world. On July 13, the research results of the research team of professors Li Baojun and Zheng xianchuang of Jinan University were published in the core science of the American Chemical Society. Control white blood cells like commanding soldiers Although modern medical research has been quite developed, so far, many major human diseases mainly rely on the human body's own immune system to fight, such as cancer immunotherapy. In addition, according to statistics, in traditional drug delivery methods, the dose of drugs reaching the lesion location may be less than 1% many times. This means that most of the drugs were lost during delivery. "The goal of this study is to actively control every white blood cell in the living immune system like commanding soldiers to fight, so that it can directly and efficiently remove foreign bodies, such as viruses and bacteria." Zheng xianchuang said in an interview with science and technology daily. Why target white blood cells? "White blood cells are the first line of defense for the human body against foreign bodies. Once bacteria and viruses invade, white blood cells will be the first to contact them. However, the process of white blood cells performing removal tasks is spontaneous and random, and many times, some bacteria or viruses may be missed." Zheng xianchuang said, "to this end, we have proposed a new method, that is, using light to remotely control white blood cells. If foreign bodies invade the body and white blood cells are still dormant, we can manipulate the laser to wake up white blood cells in sleep and activate them, and then control its movement to directly let white blood cells clear foreign bodies. This process is completely similar to remotely controlling a micro robot in vivo." "Of course, this' medical micro robot 'is not to use mechanical materials to assemble a robot in vivo, but based on the existing endogenous white blood cells, coupled with our remote optical control system, so as to achieve the same as controlling the motion of the robot, so that white blood cells can move to the specified place through the specified trajectory to play a role." Zheng xianchuang said, "the position, path and speed of activated leukocytes can be controlled by programs." It is the first time to control the activation of white blood cells in vivo with light The difficulty of this research work is not small, involving two major fields: Optical Engineering and biomedicine. "In the research, we need a unique optical system. With the support of the national major scientific research instrument development project 'development of three-dimensional accurate nano light manipulation instrument that breaks through the diffraction limit', we have established a light manipulation system, which can accurately regulate the focusing mode, manipulation ability and scanning mode of light, and can carry out spectral measurement at the same time." In this process, Li Baojun and Zheng xianchuang's research team continuously optimized the system equipment based on the needs of biomedical research. Zebrafish was selected as the research object because its genes are highly homologous with human beings. But a thorny problem ensued: how to inject drugs intravenously into the blood vessels of zebrafish. "Zebrafish is very small. The adult fish is only 3-4 cm long, and the juvenile fish is only a few millimeters long. Their blood vessels are even smaller than a dozen microns. Our research needs to inject model nano drugs into these small blood vessels through intravenous injection. At that time, we encountered great technical challenges." Zheng xianchuang recalled. After repeated attempts, they finally built a set of microinjection device and could operate it skillfully, which solved this technical problem. "We put the zebrafish under the microscope and manipulated the micro syringe to move up, down, left and right through the micro controller button, realizing the precise injection of the zebrafish's micro blood vessels." He said. Through unremitting efforts, the research team has completed the research work of light control of leukocyte activation and movement in vivo for the first time in the world. "We not only did it, but also did it in a more detailed way. We can quantitatively control parameters and accurately activate or deactivate white blood cells." Zheng xianchuang said. In particular, this research can not only enable white blood cells to respond to the needs of the immune system, and then remove bacteria and viruses, but also turn white blood cells into a "mini spacecraft" that plays a transportation task, and accurately transport drugs to the lesion like passengers, so as to achieve efficient treatment. "This is a precursor research work, and there is still a long way to go before the final clinical application." Zheng xianchuang admitted that as a basic research, the current research is only carried out on zebrafish, and the subsequent optimization will continue, and experiments will be carried out gradually on mouse and large animal models. There is still a long way to go as to when experiments can be carried out on humans. (Xinhua News Agency)
Edit：Li Jialang Responsible editor：Mu Mu
Source：gmw.cn
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