All-optical strategy for high-speed and subcellular precision drug delivery using Airy beams.

Abstract

Drug delivery strategies with excellent spatiotemporal controllability and biocompatibility hold exciting prospects in personalized medicine and biopharmaceuticals. Among them, all-optical delivery strategies have attracted significant attention due to their low invasiveness and high positioning accuracy. However, current all-optical schemes predominantly rely on conservative optical gradient force trapping or transient scattering forces propulsion, which cannot sustain stable driving and limit delivery speed. Here, we present an all-optical delivery strategy based on Airy beam, enabling high-speed and subcellular-precision delivery through the synergistic regulation of gradient-scattering forces. The dominant scattering force of Airy beams propels drug carriers at speeds exceeding 400 µm/s, while the gradient force ensures a subcellular delivery precision of ~1 µm during high-speed propulsion. Quantitative measurements using a custom axial imaging module reveal at least a 7-fold speed enhancement over conventional all-optical methods. When applied to anticancer drug delivery, the localized mechanical forces generated by high-speed propulsion enhance stable adhesion of carriers to the cell membrane, thereby promoting drug uptake and accelerating tumor cells apoptosis. This work establishes Airy beams as a powerful tool for drug delivery, opening a new avenue for high-performance all-optical delivery platforms.