A safe and powerful treatment for the body against deadly radiation.

Despite the wide application of radiation in diagnoses and treatments, there is still no magic material to protect people from radiation exposure. Although Amifostine is developed as a radioprotector, the FDA approved its application only for the protection of the salivary glands. It also requires repetitive injections to be effective and can pose serious health threats of systemic toxicity and complications when applied to people under conditions of full body irradiation.

Researchers from the Nanoparticle Research Center, within the Institute of Basic Sciences (IBS, South Korea) in collaboration with their colleagues from Seoul National University, the College of Dentistry, and the Institute of Dental Research, have reported a highly effective and safe to combat dangerous doses. radiation by cultivating manganese oxide (Mn₃OR_{4 4}) nanocrystals on cerium oxide (CeO_two) nanocrystals, the research team promoted the catalytic activity of the CeO_two/Minnesota₃OR_{4 4} nanocrystals in their ability to avoid the side effects of deadly radiation.

“Excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) are found in several major diseases, including sepsis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Parkinson’s disease, just to name a few,” says Hyeon Taeghwan, director of the IBS Nanoparticle Research Center (Center Seoul National University Distinguished Professor). “A powerful antioxidant that can work in low doses can only guarantee sustainable radiation applications in medical, industrial and military settings and more. These new CeO_two/Minnesota₃OR_{4 4} heterostructured nanocrystals are five times stronger than when CeO_two or Mn₃OR_{4 4} does the job alone, “says director Hyeon.

When our bodies are exposed to high levels of radiation, a massive amount of ROS is generated in milliseconds due to the breakdown of water molecules. These ROS severely damage cells, eventually leading to their death. The research team looked at CeO_two and Mn₃OR_{4 4} nanoparticles for their excellent ROS removal abilities. The challenge was how to apply these antioxidant nanomaterials safely and cheaply. Although effective, CeO_two and Mn₃OR_{4 4} Nanoparticles can remove ROS only in high doses. They are also rare and difficult to obtain materials.

The researchers based themselves on the approach generally used in the catalysis field: stacking nanoparticles with different lattice parameters generates surface tension and increases oxygen vacancies on the surface of the nanocrystal. “The synergistic effect of the strain generated in Mn₃OR_{4 4} and increasing the oxygen vacancy in the CeO_two “The surface improved the surface binding affinity of ROS, increasing the catalytic activity of nanocrystals,” explains Han Sang Ihn, the study’s first author.

“Nanocrystalline deformation engineering, primarily studied in the field of catalysts, has now been extended to the medical field to protect cells from ROS-related diseases,” says Cho Min Gee, the study’s co-author.

The research team verified the safety as well as the effectiveness of these new antioxidant nanocrystals. Molecular dynamics are analyzed using an acute radiation model of human intestinal organoids. “Organoids pretreated with CeO_two/Minnesota₃OR_{4 4} nanocrystals expressed more genes related to intestinal stem cell proliferation and maintenance and fewer cell death genes compared to the group without prior treatment, “explains Sang-woo Lee, the first co-author of the study. In a study with mice the CEO_two/Minnesota₃OR_{4 4} nanocrystals significantly increased the animal survival rate to 67% with only a very small dose (1/360 of the injection dose of amifostine) and decreased oxidative stress on internal organs, circulation, and marrow cells bone, without significant signs of toxicity

“To ensure safe and wide application of a radioprotector in the clinic, maintaining high catalytic efficacy at low doses is key. These CeO_two/Minnesota₃OR_{4 4} nanocrystals demonstrate their powerful antioxidant effects to protect our entire body effectively only in small doses, “says Park Kyungpyo, professor in the Department of Dentistry at Seoul National University.