Pt nanoshell with ultra-high NIR-Ⅱ photothermal conversion efficiency mediates multifunctional neuromodulation for cardiac protection

Abstract The autonomic nervous system plays a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases. Regulating it is essential for preventing and treating acute ventricular arrhythmias (VAs). Photothermal neuromodulation is a nonimplanted technique, but the response temperature ranges of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) and TWIK-elated K+ Channel 1 (TREK1) exhibit differences while being closely aligned, and the acute nature of VAs require that it must be rapid and precise. However, the low photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE) still poses limitations on achieving rapid and precise treatment. Here, we achieved nearly perfect blackbody absorption and one of the highest PCE in the second near infrared (NIR-II) window (73.7% at 1064 nm) via a Pt nanoparticle shell (PtNP-shell). By precisely manipulating the photothermal effect, we successfully achieved rapid and precise multifunctional neuromodulation encompassing neural activation (41.0–42.9 oC) and inhibition (45.0–46.9 oC). The NIR-II photothermal modulation additionally achieved bi-directional reversible autonomic modulation and conferred protection against acute VAs associated with myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury in interventional therapy.