Near-Infrared Activated Black Phosphorus as a Nontoxic Photo-Oxidant for Alzheimer's Amyloid-β Peptide

The inhibition of amyloid-beta (A beta) aggregation by photo-oxygenation has become an effective way of treating Alzheimer's disease (AD). New near-infrared (NIR) activated treatment agents, which not only possess high photo-oxygenation efficiency, but also show low biotoxicity, are urgently needed. Herein, for the first time, it is demonstrated that NIR activated black phosphorus (BP) could serve as an effective nontoxic photo-oxidant for amyloid-beta peptide in vitro and in vivo. The nanoplatform BP@BTA (BTA: one of thioflavin-T derivatives) possesses high affinity to the A beta peptide due to specific amyloid selectivity of BTA. Importantly, under NIR light, BP@BTA can significantly generate a high quantum yield of singlet oxygen (O-1(2)) to oxygenate A beta, thereby resulting in inhibiting the aggregation and attenuating A beta-induced cytotoxicity. In addition, BP could finally degrade into nontoxic phosphate, which guarantees the biosafety. Using transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans CL2006 as AD model, the results demonstrate that the O-1(2)-generation system could dramatically promote life-span extension of CL2006 strain by decreasing the neurotoxicity of A beta.