Scientists have for the first time injected living cockroaches with tiny DNA computers that travel in the body to dispense drugs.
The DNA nanobots travel around the insect's body and interact with each other, as well as the insect's cells. When they uncurl, they can dispense drugs carried in their folds.
"DNA nanorobots could potentially carry out complex programmes that could one day be used to diagnose or treat diseases with unprecedented sophistication," said Daniel Levner, a bioengineer at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University.
Levner and his colleagues at Bar Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel, made the nanobots by exploiting the binding properties of DNA.
When it meets a certain kind of protein, DNA unravels into two complementary strands. By creating particular sequences, the strands can be made to unravel on contact with specific molecules, such as those on a diseased cell, 'New Scientist' reported.
The team has now injected various kinds of nanobots into cockroaches. Because the nanobots are labelled with fluorescent markers, the researchers can follow them and analyse how different robot combinations affect where substances are delivered.
The team said the accuracy of delivery and control of the nanobots is equivalent to a computer system.
"This is the first time that biological therapy has been able to match how a computer processor works," said co-author Ido Bachelet of the Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials at Bar Ilan University.
Bachelet believes the robots' stability can be enhanced so that they can survive in mammals.
"There is no reason why preliminary trials on humans can't start within five years," he said.
