Minimizing nanorobot swarm loss for near-infrared-responsive chemo-photothermal therapy

Magnetic nanorobot swarms hold great promise for biomedicine application, but transporting them over long distances in hash environments often leads to significant swarm losses, posing a significant challenge for their practical applications. Here we show a multi-step “carriers-to-swarms” strategy to protect and transport these nanorobot swarms to tumor sites. Upon reaching the target area, the carriers break down to release the nanorobots, which then form swarms that can penetrate deeply into tumors. The nanorobots are designed to combine heat generation and drug releasing when activated by near-infrared irradiation, allowing precise and effective chemo-photothermal therapy. Our results demonstrate that this strategy significantly improves targeted cancer cell killing by combining photothermal treatment and chemotherapy, overcoming previous challenges in transporting nanorobot swarms. This study presents a multi-stage strategy to address the practical challenges of using nanorobot swarms for target therapy, specifically addressing the issue of swarm loss over long distances in harsh environments to maximize the effectiveness of swarm-based chemo-photothermal therapy, thereby advancing the realistic application of nanorobot swarms. Magnetic nanorobot swarms are promising for biomedical applications, but transporting them over long distances in hash environments leads to significant swarm losses. Here, a multi-step “carriers-to-swarms” strategy protects and transports nanorobot swarms to tumor sites