Doctors have welcomed a breakthrough in medicine that will see tiny robots injected into the human body to perform complex tasks.

医生们对医学领域的一项重大突破表示欢迎，微小的机器人被注入人体执行复杂的任务。



A team of scientists engineered magnetic nanobots made up of blood-clotting drugs encased in a coating designed to melt at precise temperatures.

一个科学家团队设计了由凝血药物制成的磁性纳米机器人，这种药物被包裹在一种设计在精确温度下熔化的涂层中。

The technology could "open new frontiers in medicine", scientists announced.

科学家们宣布，这项技术“将开启医学的新纪元”。

In a study co-led by the University of Edinburgh's School of Engineering, researchers showed the technology could be used to treat bleeds in the brain caused by aneurysms, which cause about 500,000 deaths globally each year.

在爱丁堡大学工程学院联合领导的一项研究中， 研究人员展示了这项技术可用于治疗动脉瘤引起的脑出血， 动脉瘤每年导致全球约50万人死亡。

They injected several hundred billion of the bots, each about a twentieth of the size of a red blood cell, into an artery, and then remotely guided them to the site of the aneurysm using magnets and medical imaging.

他们将数百亿个机器人（每个机器人大约是红细胞大小的二十分之一）注入动脉， 然后利用磁铁和医学成像远程引导它们到达动脉瘤的位置。

Once the swarm of tiny bots was in position, researchers used magnets to cluster them together and heat them to their coatings' melting point, thereby releasing the drug at the precise point where it could prevent or stem bleeding into the brain.

一旦这些微小的机器人群就位，研究人员就使用磁铁将它们聚集在一起并加热到涂层的熔点， 从而在能够防止或阻止脑出血的精确位置释放药物。

An aneurysm is a blood-filled bulge on a brain artery that can rupture and cause fatal bleeds, or lead to stroke and disability.

动脉瘤是脑动脉上充满血液的凸起物，可能会破裂并导致致命出血，或导致中风和残疾。

Dr Qi Zhou of the University of Edinburgh's School of Engineering, who co-led the study, said: "Nanorobots are set to open new frontiers in medicine, potentially allowing us to carry out surgical repairs with fewer risks than conventional treatments and target drugs with pinpoint accuracy in hard-to-reach parts of the body.

爱丁堡大学工程学院共同领导这项研究的齐洲博士说：“纳米机器人将在医学领域开辟新的前沿， 使我们能够比传统治疗方法更安全地进行手术修复，并以极高的准确性将药物靶向输送到身体难以触及的部位。

"Our study is an important step towards bringing these technologies closer to treating critical medical conditions in a clinical setting."

“我们的研究是使这些技术更接近于临床治疗严重疾病的重要一步。”

Researchers said the study showed nanobots had the potential to transport drugs to precise locations without risk of leaking into the bloodstream, which they said was a key test of the technology's safety and efficiency. They also said the nanobots could reduce the need for implants in the treatment of brain aneurysms, such as coils or stents (mesh tubes).

研究人员表示，该研究表明纳米机器人有潜力将药物输送到精确位置，而不会泄漏到血液中， 他们说这是检验该技术安全性和效率的关键测试。他们还表示，纳米机器人可以减少在治疗脑动脉瘤时植入物（如线圈或支架（网状管））的需求。

In turn, they said, this would reduce the risk of implants being rejected by the body, and curb reliance on anti-blood-clotting drugs, which can cause bleeding and stomach problems.

他们接着说，这将减少植入物被身体排斥的风险，并减少对抗凝血药物的依赖， 这些药物可能导致出血和胃部问题。

They added that it can also take hours of painstaking surgery to get an implant to the aneurysm, because of the need to navigate a complex network of small blood vessels in the brain.

他们补充说，由于需要穿越大脑中复杂的小血管网络， 将植入物植入动脉瘤可能需要数小时的精细手术。

The same team has also developed nanorobots to remove blood clots, which they said also showed their potential in the treatment of strokes.

同一研究团队还开发了用于清除血块的纳米机器人，并表示这也显示了纳米机器人在治疗中风方面的潜力。

The study, published in the nanoscience and nanotechnology journal Small, was led by a team from the UK and China.

这项由英国和中国的研究团队领导的研究发表在纳米科学和纳米技术期刊《Small》