Rocket-inspired effervescent motors for oral macromolecule delivery.

Oral administration is a most convenient way with good patient compliance for drug delivery; while it remains challenge to achieve desirable bioavailability of most macromolecules due to the complex gastrointestinal barriers. Here, inspired by the structure and function of rocket, we present a novel micro-motor delivery system with scaled-down rocket-like architecture and effervescent-tablets-derived fuel for efficient oral macromolecule delivery by penetrating intestinal barrier. These rocket-inspired effervescent motors (RIEMs) are composed of sharp needle tips for both loading cargoes and efficient penetrating, and tail wings for loading effervescent powders and avoiding perforation. When exposing to water environment, the effervescent-tablets-derived fuel of the RIEMs generates intensive CO 2 bubbles to propel themselves to move at high speed. Thus, the RIEMs with sharp tip can inject into surrounding mucosa for effective drug releasing. Furthermore, due to their tail wings design, perforation can be effectively avoided during the injection process, ensuring the safety of RIEMs in gastrointestinal active delivery. Based on these advantages, we have demonstrated that the RIEMs can efficiently move and stab into the intestinal mucosa for insulin delivery, exhibiting efficacy in regulating blood sugar level of the diabetic rabbit model. These features indicate that our RIEMs are versatile and valuable for clinical oral macromolecules delivery. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.