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Enhanced Drug Delivery via Localization-Enabled Relaying in Molecular Communication Nanonetworks

Ethungshan Shitiri, Akarsh Yadav, Sergi Abadal, Eduard Alarcón, Ho-Shin Cho

TL;DR

This study proposes an enhanced MC-TDD system with a relay network that improves drug delivery efficiency by 17% and finds that optimizing CIR is crucial for enhancing drug delivery efficiency.

Abstract

Intra-body nanonetworks hold promise for advancing targeted drug delivery (TDD) systems through molecular communications (MC). In the baseline MC-TDD system, drug-loaded nanomachines (DgNs) are positioned near the infected tissues to deliver drug molecules directly. To mitigate the decline in drug delivery efficiency caused by diffusion, we propose an enhanced MC-TDD system with a relay network. This network employs a novel localization-enabled relaying mechanism, where a nano-controller broadcasts a localization signal. DgNs then measure the received signal strength against thresholds to determine their clusters relative to the infected tissue. Additionally, our study considers the effect of multiple absorbing DgNs on the channel impulse response (CIR), a factor overlooked in previous works. Our approach improves drug delivery efficiency by $17\%$ compared to the baseline system. Importantly, we find that optimizing CIR is crucial for enhancing drug delivery efficiency. These findings pave the way for further research into optimizing CIR-based relay selection, as well as investigating the impact of factors such as drug molecule lifespan, obstruction probabilities, and flow dynamics.

Enhanced Drug Delivery via Localization-Enabled Relaying in Molecular Communication Nanonetworks

TL;DR

This study proposes an enhanced MC-TDD system with a relay network that improves drug delivery efficiency by 17% and finds that optimizing CIR is crucial for enhancing drug delivery efficiency.

Abstract

Intra-body nanonetworks hold promise for advancing targeted drug delivery (TDD) systems through molecular communications (MC). In the baseline MC-TDD system, drug-loaded nanomachines (DgNs) are positioned near the infected tissues to deliver drug molecules directly. To mitigate the decline in drug delivery efficiency caused by diffusion, we propose an enhanced MC-TDD system with a relay network. This network employs a novel localization-enabled relaying mechanism, where a nano-controller broadcasts a localization signal. DgNs then measure the received signal strength against thresholds to determine their clusters relative to the infected tissue. Additionally, our study considers the effect of multiple absorbing DgNs on the channel impulse response (CIR), a factor overlooked in previous works. Our approach improves drug delivery efficiency by compared to the baseline system. Importantly, we find that optimizing CIR is crucial for enhancing drug delivery efficiency. These findings pave the way for further research into optimizing CIR-based relay selection, as well as investigating the impact of factors such as drug molecule lifespan, obstruction probabilities, and flow dynamics.
Paper Structure (14 sections, 15 equations, 9 figures, 3 tables)

This paper contains 14 sections, 15 equations, 9 figures, 3 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. System Model
  3. Channel
  4. Channel Impulse Response
  5. Number of Received Molecules
  6. Proposed Localization-enabled Relaying Mechanism
  7. Localization phase operation
  8. Drug delivery phase operation
  9. Analysis of drug molecules delivered.
  10. Analysis of drug delivery links.
  11. Analysis of threshold's impact on the CIR.
  12. Numerical Results
  13. Conclusion
  14. Acknowledgments

Figures (9)

  • Figure 1: Schematic of the proposed MC-TDD system with a nano-controller and random DgN placement.
  • Figure 2: Channel models between a) the nano-controller and DgNs and b) the DgNs and infected tissue.
  • Figure 3: Overview of the proposed localization-enabled relaying scheme and timeslot model.
  • Figure 4: Timing diagram of the drug delivery operation from the DgNs in cluster $\mathcal{K}_{0}$.
  • Figure 5: Illustration of the drug delivery operation in the presence of a relay.
  • ...and 4 more figures

Theorems & Definitions (1)

  • Remark 1