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Attempts to apply artificial nano/micromotors for diverse biomedical applications have inspired a variety of strategies for designing motors with diverse propulsion mechanisms and functions. However, existing artificial motors are made exclusively of synthetic materials, which are subject to serious immune attack and clearance upon entering the bloodstream. Herein we report an elegant approach that turns natural red blood cells (RBCs) into functional micromotors with the aid of ultrasound propulsion and magnetic guidance. Iron oxide nanoparticles are loaded into the RBCs, where their asymmetric distribution within the cells results in a net magnetization, thus enabling magnetic alignment and guidance under acoustic propulsion. The RBC motors display efficient guided and prolonged propulsion in various biological fluids, including undiluted whole blood. The stability and functionality of the RBC motors, as well as the tolerability of regular RBCs to the ultrasound operation, are carefully examined. Since the RBC motors preserve the biological and structural features of regular RBCs, these motors possess a wide range of antigenic, transport, and mechanical properties that common synthetic motors cannot achieve and thus hold considerable promise for a number of practical biomedical uses.

"Green Synthesis" has been broadly applied in drug synthesis and nanomaterial preparation. The integration of automated micro‐synthesis and high‐throughput screening systems is a key way to achieve the goal of green manufacturing. Here, a one‐click green synthesis platform is designed that integrates droplets arrays‐based micro‐synthesis for Raman enhancement performance high‐throughput screening of MNPs@Cu‐MOF (AuNPs@, AgNPs@, PtNPs@Cu‐MOF) under room temperature and normal pressure. The fully integrated ultrasound units can achieve rapid multi‐component mixing in the droplet array systems, and significantly accelerate materials growth as well as enhance encapsulation of noble metal nanoparticles into Cu‐MOF structures. Based on such integrated systems, structures with high Raman enhancement performance can be high‐throughput evaluation and easily screened out. The results indicated that the AgNPs@Cu‐MOF exhibited the best Raman enhancement performance, which is ≈8 times higher than pure AgNPs. Such a green and integrated platform provides a way for automated multi‐type composites fabrication, which can be expanded to multiple fields in the future via combined robotic platforms and artificial intelligence technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assembly of micro‐nanoparticles is one of the key tasks for controlling and manipulating the structure of materials at micro/‐nanoscale. By carefully designing the ultrasound experiments and comparing the results with acoustic theories, we presented an in‐depth study of the ultrasound‐induced assembly behaviors of micro/‐nanoparticles (microparticle size≪wavelength), especially their dynamic interactions between microparticles. The whole assembly processes including floating micro/nanoparticles, single particle communication, assembly to single particle interactions, and reorganization of assembly are fully studied. A rapid response of the ultrasound‐based assembly (0.5 min) shows distinct advantages compared to those of previously used methods such as light‐, electrical‐ and temperature‐based ones. Such an efficient and effective microparticle assembly holds great promise for fabrication of complex structure of materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A red blood cell membrane-camouflaged nanowire that can serve as new generation of biomimetic motor sponge is described. The biomimetic motor sponge is constructed by the fusion of biocompatible gold nanowire motors and RBC nanovesicles. The motor sponge possesses a high coverage of RBC vesicles, which remain totally functional due to its exclusively oriented extracellular functional portion on the surfaces of motor sponge. These biomimetic motors display efficient acoustical propulsion, including controlled movement in undiluted whole blood. The RBC vesicles on the motor sponge remain highly stable during the propulsion process, conferring thus the ability to absorb membrane-damaging toxins and allowing the motor sponge to be used as efficient toxin decoys. The efficient propulsion of the motor sponges under an ultrasound field results in accelerated neutralization of the membrane-damaging toxins. Such motor sponges connect artificial nanomotors with biological entities and hold great promise for treating a variety of injuries and diseases caused by membrane-damaging toxins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasound as a biocompatible and powerful approach has been advanced in biotechnology. Here we present an acoustic microchip integrating modification and detection for in-situ analysis. Such microchip employs two pairs of piezoelectric transducers (PZTs) for acoustic field generation and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microcavity on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate for producing microparticle array. The applying of acoustic field results in rapidly forming microparticle array by adjusting the inputting frequency and voltage. In-situ modification and detection are accelerated due to the dynamic ultrasonic streaming around the ultrasound induced microparticle array. Such array also benefits from reducing the detection errors by coupling of multiple points. With this strategy, biomarkers (e.g. miRNA) can be enriched, and achieve in-situ modification and detection via simple two steps with excellent specificity. After the detection, samples are regained from the output channel by releasing the acoustic field, which is benefit for further analysis. Such integrated modification and detection acoustic microchip shows great potential in visual in-situ analysis and enriching ultratrace biomarkers for clinical diagnosis. • An acoustic microchip integrating modification and detection for in-situ analysis was designed. • Such ultrasound-based array also benefits from reducing the detection errors by coupling of multiple points. • The acoustic microchip enables rapidly, real-time and visual biomarkers analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On-chip microparticle-based separation is a significant activity in analytical and biomedical field. Here, we reported an acoustic aggregation-induced microparticle separation for on-chip fluorescence detection of Alzheimer biomarkers. miRNA-101, an Alzheimer-related biomarker, was used as a model target to validate the performance of the acoustic aggregation-induced separation assay. Under the ultrasound filed, the microparticles would move toward the centre of chip by simply adjusting the frequency and voltage. Such particle aggregation further resulted in fluorescence enhancement comparing with single microparticle. This approach integrated acoustic aggregation-induced microparticle separation with fluorescence enhancement, holding great potential application for the development of lab-on-a-chip based trace biomarkers detection in diagnosis field. [Display omitted] • An acoustic aggregation-induced microparticles separation on a microdevice for the detection of miRNA. • Microparticles aggregation resulted in fluorescence enhancement comparing with single microparticle. • miRNA concentration was converted into FAM fluorescence on microparticle surface by introduction of Exo I. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of COVID-19 has created a huge challenge to global health systems. Experience in fighting the epidemic shows that the development of a rapid and sensitive POCT diagnostic platform for SARS-CoV-2 that can be deployed in situ is crucial to contain the outbreak. Here, we have developed a portable microdroplet detection platform that integrated temperature controller and micro-stirring for high-throughput and ultrafast COVID-19 diagnosis. Such a device uses a p-n junction (PN junction) as the temperature controller to adjust the temperature in a single microdroplet independently and precisely, ensuring the amplification of reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP). Meanwhile, the platform incorporates an ultrasonic micro-stirring unit, greatly increasing the interaction between RT-LAMP molecules and accelerating the amplification. The results show good linearity over a wide linear range (1 to 105 copies/μL) and low LOD (0.48 copy/μL). Our method reports in only 6.1 min for high-viral load samples, and combines with sample preparation, the total detection process could be done within 30 min. Such a portable and fully integrated microdroplet molecular diagnostic platform is a promising tool for point-of-care diagnosis of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases in resource-limited settings. [Display omitted] • A portable microdroplet array integrated platform for SARS-CoV-2 detection. • The temperature of each microdroplet can be independently and precisely controlled. • Ultrasound-induced microstreaming can enhance the RT-LAMP reaction. • The method presents a low LOD with 0.48 copy/μL and detection time in only 6.1 min. • Such fully integrated device holds promise for rapid and sensitive detection in clinical diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]