A self-charging salt water battery for antitumor therapy

Abstract

Implantable devices on the tumor tissue as a local treatment are able to work in situ, which minimizes systemic toxicities and adverse effects. Here, we demonstrated an implantable self-charging battery that can regulate tumor microenvironment persistently by the well-designed electrode redox reaction. The battery consists of biocompatible polyimide electrode and zinc electrode, which can consume oxygen sustainably during battery discharge/self-charge cycle, thus modulating hypoxia level in tumor microenvironment. The oxygen reduction in battery leads to the formation of reactive oxygen species, showing 100% prevention on tumor formation. Sustainable consumption of oxygen causes adequate intratumoral hypoxic conditions over the course of 14 days, which is helpful for the hypoxia-activated prodrugs (HAPs) to kill tumor cells. The synergistic effect of the battery/HAPs can deliver more than 90% antitumor rate. Using redox reactions in electrochemical battery provides a potential approach for the tumor inhibition and regulation of tumor microenvironment.

Special Devices for Zinc-Ion Battery: Structure, Mechanism, and Application

“…(b) Visual oxygen scavenging of PNTCDA electrode at 50 mA g –1 under air atmosphere enabled by pH indicator (phenolphthalein). (c) Color change of electrolyte during electrochemical discharge/charge at 1.5 A g –1 under Ar atmosphere . Reproduced with permission from ref .…”

“…The 1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PNTCDA) was developed in an implantable self-charging battery by Huang et al due to its high safety and biocompatibility. The well-designed electrode redox reaction in this battery as demonstrated in Figure (in self-charging ZIBs) can regulate the tumor microenvironment.…”

“…Organic compounds such as poly(1,5-naphthalenediamine) (poly(1,5-NAPD)), 13 polyimide (carbonyl compound), 11 benzo[i]benzo [6,7]quinoxalino[2,3-a]benzo [6,7]-quinoxalino-[2,3-c]phenazine-5,8,13,16,21,24-hexaone (BQPH), 14 and so on can also be used to fabricate chemical self-charging ZIBs. Unlike inorganic compounds, organic compounds have a wider internal space and redox reactions, mainly through rearrangement of chemical bonds, and will be more sensitive to oxygen.…”

“…Biocompatible ZIBs require that each component of the battery has high safety and biological adaptability, and this part mainly discusses the application of ZIBs in biological bodies. A chemical self-charging battery with a normal saline solution as the biocompatible electrolyte was developed for antitumor therapy by Huang et al 11 How it works is described in the Self-Charging ZIBs section (Figure 6b, c). To regulate the tumor, a typical drug of hypoxiaactivated prodrugs (HAPs, e.g., tirapazamine) was used along with the battery.…”

“…Near-neutral aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have recently received great attention due to their intrinsic safety, low cost, environmental friendliness, nontoxicity, and high abundancy of metallic zinc. − Therefore, ZIBs, as the complement to lithium-ion batteries, are considered to be an excellent candidates for large-scale energy storage. Most importantly, because of the easy preparation and strong adaptability of ZIBs, many special configuration devices have been developed (Figure ), such as photorechargeable ZIBs, − self-charging ZIBs, − stretchable ZIBs, , biocompatible ZIBs, ,− decoupling ZIBs, − micro-ZIBs, − etc. These devices greatly expand the application scenarios of ZIBs, such as small autonomous sensing devices, health monitoring devices, wearable energy storage devices, etc.…”