Current clinical brain tumour therapy practices are based on tumour resection and post-operative chemotherapy or X-ray radiation. Resection requires technically challenging open-skull surgeries that can lead to major neurological deficits and, in some cases, death. Treatments with X-ray and chemotherapy, on the other hand, cause major side-effects such as damage to surrounding normal brain tissues and other organs. Here we report the development of an integrated nanomedicine–bioelectronics brain–machine interface that enables continuous and on-demand treatment of brain tumours, without open-skull surgery and toxicological side-effects on other organs. Near-infrared surface plasmon characteristics of our gold nanostars enabled the precise treatment of deep brain tumours in freely behaving mice. Moreover, the nanostars’ surface coating enabled their selective diffusion in tumour tissues after intratumoral administration, leading to the exclusive heating of tumours for treatment. This versatile remotely controlled and wireless method allows the adjustment of nanoparticles’ photothermal strength, as well as power and wavelength of the therapeutic light, to target tumours in different anatomical locations within the brain.

当前的临床脑肿瘤治疗实践基于肿瘤切除和术后化疗或 X 射线辐射。切除术需要在技术上具有挑战性的开颅手术，这可能会导致严重的神经功能缺损，在某些情况下甚至会导致死亡。另一方面，X 射线和化学疗法会引起严重的副作用，例如对周围正常脑组织和其他器官造成损害。在这里，我们报告了集成的纳米医学-生物电子学脑机接口的开发，该接口可以连续和按需治疗脑肿瘤，而无需开颅手术和对其他器官的毒理学副作用。我们的金纳米星的近红外表面等离子激元特性使得能够在自由行为的小鼠中精确治疗深部脑肿瘤。而且，纳米星的表面涂层使其在瘤内给药后能够在肿瘤组织中选择性扩散，从而实现对肿瘤的独家加热以进行治疗。这种多功能的远程控制和无线方法允许调整纳米粒子的光热强度以及治疗光的功率和波长，以靶向大脑内不同解剖位置的肿瘤。