Single nanosheet can sustainably generate oxygen and inhibit respiration simultaneously in cancer cells

In a tumor, the abnormal cancer cell proliferation results in an insufficient O 2 supply, and meanwhile cancer cells consume O 2 very fast. The imbalance between a low oxygen supply and overwhelming oxygen consumption results in a low oxygen concentration in solid tumors. Therefore, in order to relieve hypoxia in tumors, it is necessary to not only sustainably generate O 2 , but also inhibit mitochondrial respiration simultaneously. Here, we found that a single Ti 2 C(OH) 2 nanomaterial not only can sustainably generate O 2 but also simultaneously highly inhibits mitochondrial respiration via binding phosphorylation proteins onto the surface in cancer cells. Ce6 was linked onto Ti 2 C(OH) 2 , forming Ti 2 C(OH) 2 -Ce6. Ti 2 C(OH) 2 -Ce6 could highly relieve hypoxia in tumors via the combination of sustainable O 2 generation and respiration inhibition, produce enough 1 O 2 to kill cancer cells via PDT, and also effectively convert the absorbed light energy into thermal energy to kill cancer cell via PTT, thereby highly enhancing the cancer therapy. Ti 2 C(OH) 2 can relieve the hypoxia in tumors via generating O 2 from endogenous H 2 O 2 and inhibiting mitochondrial respiratory in cancer cell.