Black phosphorus nanosheet-promoted prodrug activation for enhanced cancer therapy
Nan Yang, Dabao Zha, Changyu Cao, Ruigang Liu, Hanjun Sun, Xuejiao Song, Yanling Li, Xiaoji Xie, Xiaochen Dong, Yu Cai · 2026
Read Black phosphorus nanosheet-promoted prodrug activation for enhanced cancer therapy by Nan Yang, Dabao Zha, Changyu Cao, Ruigang Liu, Hanjun Sun, Xuejiao Song, Yanling Li, Xiaoji Xie, Xiaochen Dong, Yu Cai (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13214534.txt.
Description
Nan Yang and co-authors use black phosphorus sheets to wake a sleeping cancer drug inside tumors, in a 2026 study. The drug AQ4N turns toxic only where oxygen runs low, a trait of tumor cores. In real tumors the switch flips too weakly, so the drug underperforms. Black phosphorus breaks down in the body, and that decay uses up oxygen and sheds acid.
The sheets thus set the very stage the drug needs. Their decay deepens the low-oxygen state and sours the fluid around the tumor. Under mild acid, the sheets also grip the drug in a way that speeds its wake-up. The pairing killed more cancer together than either part alone. In mice, the combo shrank tumors with no clear side harm. The authors pitch decay itself as a drug-boosting tool.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Nan Yang, Dabao Zha, Changyu Cao, Ruigang Liu, Hanjun Sun, Xuejiao Song, Yanling Li, Xiaoji Xie, Xiaochen Dong, Yu Cai |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 44 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |