On the Reception Process of Molecular Communication-Based Drug Delivery

Abstract

One of the important applications of molecular communication is the targeted drug delivery process in which the drug molecules are released toward the target (receiver) in a way that the side effects are minimized in the human body. As the total number of released molecules increases, the receiver cannot receive all of the transmitted drug molecules. Therefore, the molecules accumulate in the system which results in side effects in the body. In order to diagnose the appropriate transmission rate of the drug molecules, it is important to investigate the reception process of the receiver. In this paper, a reception model is studied using queuing theory. In the proposed model, the rejection rate of the drug molecules due to different reasons, such as random movement of the molecules, as well as the rejection rate due to active receptors are taken into account. Moreover, an interval consisting of the lower and upper bounds for the number of released molecules is presented based on the proposed model in order to determine the range of allowable dosage of the drug molecules. It is shown that queuing theory can be successfully employed in accurate modeling of the reception process of the receiver in drug delivery applications. INDEX TERMSDrug delivery, Finite receptor, Free diffusion, Queuing theory, Rejection rate. I. INTRODUCTION Molecular communication (MC) is an emerging communication technique in which molecules are used to transfer information among nanomachines [1], [2]. Each nanomachine is a nano-scale device which can perform a simple task in MC. Cooperation of nanomachines leads to performing a complex task [3], [4]. MC has various applications in Internet of Nano Things (IoNT) [5], Internet of Bio-Nano Tings (IoBNT) [6], and Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) [7], such as health monitoring, healthcare, and targeted therapy [8]. This kind of communication can be found in biological systems such as communication between neurons in the human body nervous system [9], [10]. In particular, MC has a wide range of applications in the medical field which can be categorized into two main parts: diagnosis and treatment of disease [11]. Drug delivery is one of the branches of MC applications in the treatment category which attracts a lot of recent attention among researchers [12]-[16]. It has a wide range of applications in the medical field in which a nanoparticle with relative longterm stability is employed as the drug carrier to perform the drug delivery process in the human body [17]. For instance, collagen is a biomaterial that is applicable in cases such as