Drone-targeted emergency drug delivery system successfully developed

The research demonstrated the reception of emergency signals, identification and positioning of emergency targets, and the generation of safe and collision-free trajectories.

For patients with sudden illnesses such as myocardial infarction, severe hypoglycemia, and severe trauma, if they are not treated in time, they will face a great risk of death, so timely medication is very important. In order to effectively meet the needs of patients, Professor Gu Zhen and Researcher Yu Jicheng's team from Zhejiang University School of Pharmacy and Jinhua Research Institute, together with Researcher Lu Haojian's team from Zhejiang University School of Control Science and Engineering, invented a targeted emergency drug delivery system based on drones , which enriched the application of drones in the field of emergency and has a wide range of clinical application scenarios. The relevant results were published in Advanced Materials on December 23.

The drone targeted emergency drug delivery system consists of a drone, a drug delivery device, and a microneedle patch containing emergency treatment drugs. Gu Zhen introduced: "This system allows the drone to fly to the patient and deliver the drug autonomously without any other force. The needles in the system are microneedle arrays loaded with drugs, made of polymer materials, less than 1 mm in length, and less painful. It can be said to be a flying smart emergency needle."

In order to achieve this unimaginable drug delivery process, Gu Zhen's team designed a contact-triggered throwing drug delivery device that contains a strong spring to provide sufficient power to penetrate the microneedles when it contacts the skin. Compared with manual drug delivery, the thrust provided by the device is more uniform, which is more conducive to the microneedle patch penetrating the skin. Lu Haojian introduced that the drone can automatically avoid obstacles. After searching and identifying the patient, it can hover at an appropriate height, and then release the throwing drug delivery device to insert the drug-loaded microneedles into the patient's skin. The drug coated in the microneedles will be quickly released subcutaneously to achieve first aid.

At present, the system has successfully implemented rapid first aid in a hypoglycemic piglet model, effectively preventing the continued decline of blood sugar and raising it to the normal range. The researchers said that as a proof of concept, our microneedle contains two release modules, the front end can quickly release drugs, and the back end can respond to blood sugar changes. If blood sugar is already stable, the drug release will slow down.

Gu Zhen said that in the future the system can be used in fields such as emergency rescue. Some wearable physiological monitoring devices, detection or analysis systems, new drug delivery methods and drug delivery equipment, etc. can also be integrated with the drone targeted emergency drug delivery system to further expand the application scenarios of drone-mediated drug emergency.