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Injectable Fiber Electronics for Tumor Treatment

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Abstract

Electrochemical therapy emerged as a low-cost and effective method for tumor ablation. However, it has challenges such as the production of toxic byproducts and the use of rigid electrodes that damage soft tissues. Here, we report a new injectable and tissue-compatible fiber therapeutic electronics for safe and efficient tumor treatment. The design of aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) fiber as electrodes endowed the device with high softness and enabled mini-invasive implantation through injection. Under a mild voltage (1.2 V), the fiber device released hydroxyl ions to alter the local chemical environment of the tissues without additional toxic products/gases, leading to immediate death of tumor cells. The flexible fiber device could form stable interface with tissues and showed good biocompatibility after implantation for 30 days. The in vitro experimental results showed the fiber device could efficiently kill 90.9% of QGY-7703 cancer cells after a single treatment in a few minutes. The tumor-bearing animal models proved that the fiber therapeutic device could effectively inhibit the growth of tumor tissues, indicating it is a safe, effective, controllable and low-cost method for tumor therapy.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by MOST (2016YFA0203302), NSFC (21634003, 22075050), STCSM (20JC1414902), SHMEC (2017-01-07-00-07-E00062), the National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (BX2021245) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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Author notes

  1. Yang Zhao, Chuanrui Chen have contributed equally to the work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science and Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200438, China

    Yang Zhao, Chuanrui Chen, Tenglong Mei, Lei Ye, Liyuan Wang, Yue Guo, Xuemei Sun & Huisheng Peng

  2. The State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, School of Life Science, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200438, China

    Yangyang Qiu, Huan Feng & Jiaxue Wu

  3. National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, and College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Ye Zhang

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  1. Yang Zhao
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  2. Chuanrui Chen
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Correspondence to Xuemei Sun, Jiaxue Wu or Huisheng Peng.

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Cite this article

Zhao, Y., Chen, C., Qiu, Y. et al. Injectable Fiber Electronics for Tumor Treatment. Adv. Fiber Mater. 4, 246–255 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42765-021-00099-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42765-021-00099-3

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