UAV-targeted emergency drug delivery system successfully developed

The research demonstrates emergency signal reception, emergency target recognition and localization, and generation of safe no-collision trajectories.

For patients suffering from sudden diseases 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 administration is very important.In order to effectively meet the needs of patients, the team of Professor Gu Zhen and researcher Yu Jicheng of the School of Pharmacy and Jinhua Research Institute of Zhejiang University, together with the team of Lu Haojian, a researcher of the School of Control Science and Engineering of Zhejiang University, invented a drug based ondroneThe targeted emergency drug delivery system enriches the application of drones in the field of emergency and has broad clinical application scenarios. Related results were published in Advanced Materials on December 23.

The UAV-targeted emergency drug delivery system consists of a drone, a throwing drug delivery device, and a microneedle patch containing emergency treatment drugs. Gu Zhen introduced: “This system allows drones to fly to patients and realize autonomous drug administration without other forces. The needles in the system are microneedle arrays loaded with drugs, made of polymer materials, and the length is less than 1 mm, less pain, 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, which contains a strong spring to provide enough power to penetrate the microneedle when it touches the skin. Compared with manual administration, the device provides a more uniform thrust, which is more conducive to the penetration of the microneedle patch into 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, insert the drug-loaded microneedle into the patient’s skin, and coat the microneedle. The medicine in it will be released subcutaneously soon, realizing first aid.

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

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