Peyman Keyhanvar
1,2 
, Mohammad Hossein Rezaei
2,3 , Hakimeh Hazrati
4 , Solmaz Hazratgholizad
5 , Ahmadreza Safar Bakhshayesh
2,3* 1 Medical Philosophy and History Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
2 Department of Medical Nanotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Medical Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
3 Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
4 Medical Education Research Center, Health Management and Safety Promotion Research Institute, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
5 ARTAN 1100 Startup Accelerator, Tabriz, Iran
Abstract
Nanorobots, also known as nanobots, are promising medical structures with significant potential for revolutionizing medical treatments and preventing their onset. Nanorobotics shows promise for diagnosing, treating, and regenerating age-related diseases. These tiny machines can repair cellular damage, deliver drugs, stimulate tissue regeneration, and monitor treatments. However, their application in controlling cellular aging is in its early stages, requiring more research to fully understand their potential and address safety concerns. Despite this, the benefits of nanorobots in age-related disease management justify further investigation.
This narrative review article provides an overview of recent developments in nanorobotics, specifically focusing on its medical applications. PubMed and Google Scholar were utilized to conduct a comprehensive search using relevant keywords including "nanorobots", "cellular aging", "drug delivery systems", "cellular repair", "therapeutics", and "diagnosis". Only articles published between 2005-2023 were selected to support the arguments with up-to-date evidence. The extracted information includes nanorobot design, fabrication methods, applications, and key findings. A quality assessment was performed, and the data were categorized thematically to identify patterns and trends. The article concludes with an examination of the current state and future prospects of nanorobotics in different fields.
Our research showed that nanorobots have significant potential in the diagnosis, treatment, and regenerative medicine of age-related diseases. They can detect and repair cellular damage caused by aging, targeting DNA damage and cellular protein misfolding. Nanorobots can also deliver drugs directly to affected areas, reducing side effects. Furthermore, they stimulate tissue regeneration and the growth of new blood vessels by delivering growth factors. Nanorobots can also monitor treatment effectiveness by measuring drug concentration in tumor cells. However, there are concerns about their safety in long-term use that require further research.
Overall, nanorobots present an innovative approach to addressing cellular changes in aging, but more research is needed to understand their full potential and address safety concerns. The use of nanorobots in treating cellular aging has opened new possibilities in diagnosing and treating age-related diseases and it is a rapidly evolving field with the potential to revolutionize age-related disease treatment and improve the quality of life globally.
Extended Abstract
Background
Aging is a complex process that results in a wide range of cellular and physiological changes. It is a major risk factor for a variety of diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and dementia. Current treatments for age-related diseases are often ineffective and can have significant side effects.
Nanorobotics has emerged as a promising field for the diagnosis, treatment, and regenerative medicine of age-related diseases. They are tiny machines that can be programmed to detect and repair cellular damage, deliver drugs directly to the affected areas, and stimulate tissue regeneration. They can also be used to monitor the effectiveness of treatments and provide real-time data on cellular changes.
Despite their considerable promise, the application of nanorobots to deal with the cellular aging is still in its early stages. Therefore, much research should be devoted to investigating nanorobots in order to recognize their full potential for controlling cellular aging and to address any safety concerns associated with their application.
Methods
This narrative review article, aimed to provide an overview of the recent developments in the field of nanorobotics, focusing on its medical applications. To this end, a comprehensive search was conducted using databases such as PubMed and Google Scholar as well as searching the keywords including "nanorobots", "cellular aging", "drug delivery", "cell- and tissue-based therapy", "therapeutics", and "diagnosis". Since it was intended to support the arguments in this study by up-to-date evidence and substantiated findings, only the articles published between 2005-2023 were selected based on their contribution to the target area. Then the data extraction was performed independently by three reviewers and the author using a standard form, which resulted in the extracted information including nanorobot design, fabrication methods, applications, and key findings. Quality assessment criteria suitable for the type of study were applied, and the combined data were thematically categorized to identify the patterns and trends. Finally, the current state of nanorobotics and its future prospects in various fields were examined.
Results
Our review of the literature revealed that the application of nanorobots in cellular aging had significant potential for the diagnosis, treatment, and regenerative medicine of age-related diseases.
Nanorobots were employed to detect and repair cellular damage caused by aging. DNA nanorobots, for instance, were used to target and repair DNA damage in aging cells, while protein-based nanorobots were utilized to target and repair cellular protein misfolding, which was a common feature of age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Furthermore, nanorobots were employed to deliver drugs directly to the affected areas, thereby facilitating more precise and effective treatments. Lipid-based nanorobots, for example, were used to deliver chemotherapy drugs directly to cancerous cells, reducing the side effects associated with traditional chemotherapy.
Nanorobots were also employed to stimulate tissue regeneration and growth of new blood vessels. For instance, the researchers exploited nanorobots to deliver growth factors to damaged tissues and promoted the tissue regeneration and healing. Nanorobots were also utilized to stimulate the growth of new blood vessels, which facilitated improving the blood flow and oxygenation in the tissues damaged by aging.
Moreover, nanorobots may have been employed to monitor the effectiveness of treatments and provide real-time data on cellular changes. For example, the researchers exploited nanorobots to monitor the efficacy of chemotherapy treatments by measuring the drug concentration in the tumor cells.
Despite the promising outcomes produced by nanorobots, there were still concerns regarding the safety of their applications in cellular aging, which required further research to evaluate the potential side effects associated with their long-term applications in human body.
In sum, the application of nanorobots in cellular aging shows great potential for the diagnosis, treatment, and regenerative medicine of age-related diseases. Nanorobots offers a new and innovative approach to addressing the complex cellular changes associated with aging. However, it was found necessary to conduct further research in order to recognize their full potential in cellular aging and to address any safety concerns associated with their application.
Conclusion
It was concluded that the application of nanorobots to deal with cellular aging opened a new frontier in the diagnosis, treatment, and regenerative medicine of age-related diseases. The potential benefits of using nanorobots for treating age-related diseases are substantial but requires further investigations.
Nanorobots shows great promise in repairing cellular damage, delivering drugs directly to the affected areas, stimulating tissue regeneration, and monitoring the effectiveness of treatments. However, there are still concerns regarding the safety of their applications in human body, which necessitated conducting further research in order to identify the potential risks associated with their applications.
Nanorobotics was found a rapidly evolving field which may have yielded even more promising outcomes after carrying out future research. The development of safe and effective nanorobots may have revolutionized the treatment of age-related diseases and significantly improved the quality of life for millions of people worldwide.