EAGER: Enhancing the Radical Scavenging Activity of Oxide Nanoparticles Beyond the Current Limits - an Unconventional Solution through Multidisciplinary Science

1708057EAGER：增强氧化物纳米颗粒的自由基清除活性，超越当前的极限-通过多学科科学的非常规解决方案活性氧是生物系统中正常代谢的自然副产品。在环境压力下，如太阳紫外线、电离辐射、暴露于有毒化学物质、大气污染物和炎症，它们的水平会急剧增加。活性氧的产生和抗氧化剂的清除之间的不平衡导致活性氧在体内的净积累，导致细胞的破坏，并可能导致一系列疾病，如癌症、帕金森病、阿尔茨海默病、心力衰竭、中风、自闭症、白癜风和抑郁症。工程氧化物纳米颗粒已被证明具有抗氧化活性和有效调节和清除各种活性氧的能力。尽管在该领域取得了许多成功，但仍需要新的突破来开发更安全、更有效的治疗纳米粒子。本研究项目旨在建立一种高效捕获生物系统中活性氧的纳米粒子的设计和工程的新方法。该项目的成果将使研究人员能够进一步扩大用于预防和治疗各种疾病的纳米颗粒家族，并将最终影响社会的健康状况和福祉。除了这项研究对纳米颗粒治疗应用的直接影响外，所提出的科学概念有可能导致发现高响应性和选择性纳米颗粒的新兴应用，如实时选择性生物传感器，用于太阳能收集的工程植物功能，以及用于低排放车辆的不可降解聚合物膜。在细胞和动物模型中，氧化铈（ceria）纳米颗粒已显示出积极清除多种活性氧的潜力。氧化铈纳米颗粒清除自由基的能力与暴露的颗粒表面密切相关，并受到表面氧空位数量有限的限制。虽然颗粒核心中相对不移动的晶格空位对观察到的氧化铈纳米颗粒的清除能力没有贡献，但可能有可能利用这些空位来再生表面消耗的氧空位，以增强清除活性。在这个早期探索性研究（EAGER）项目中，一种基于固态离子领域氧空位迁移原理的非常规方法将被应用于探索晶格离子迁移率与纳米颗粒表面清除活性之间的基本关系。本研究的具体目的是探讨铈纳米粒子与铈纳米粒子的清除性能，以比较两种具有相似过渡金属阳离子（铈）但氧离子迁移率明显不同的化合物。利用晶格空位和表面氧空位的连续再生来增强纳米颗粒的清除活性是一个全新的概念，将在新的和未探索的方向上推进该领域。一个多学科团队将合成和表征氧化纳米颗粒，并将利用光谱和电化学技术评估纳米颗粒的清除活性和氧化还原诱导的表面变化。

1708057EAGER: Enhancing the Radical Scavenging Activity of Oxide Nanoparticles Beyond the Current Limits - an Unconventional Solution through Multidisciplinary ScienceReactive oxygen species are formed as a natural byproduct of normal metabolism in biological systems. Their levels can increase dramatically during times of environmental stress such as sun's ultraviolet light, ionizing radiation, exposure to toxic chemicals, atmospheric pollutants, and inflammation. The imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen species and their removal by antioxidants results in a net accumulation of these species in the body, leading to the destruction of the cells and can cause a range of disorders such as cancer, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, heart failure, stroke, autism, vitiligo, and depression. Engineered oxide nanoparticles have been shown to possess antioxidant activity and the ability to effectively regulate and scavenge a variety of reactive oxygen species. Despite many successes in the field, new breakthroughs are still needed to develop safer and more effective therapeutic nanoparticles. This research project seeks to establish a new approach toward the design and engineering of nanoparticles with high efficacy for trapping the reactive oxygen species in biological systems. The outcome of this project will allow researchers to further expand the family of nanoparticles used for the prevention and treatment of various types of diseases, and will ultimately impact society's health status and well-being. Besides the immediate impact of this research on the use of nanoparticles for therapeutic applications, the proposed scientific concept has the potential to lead to the discovery of highly responsive and selective nanoparticles for emerging applications such as real time selective biosensors, engineered plant functions for solar energy harvesting, and non-degradable polymeric membranes for low-emission vehicles. Cerium oxide (ceria) nanoparticles have demonstrated the potential to actively scavenge a variety of reactive oxygen species in cell and animal models. The capacity of ceria nanoparticles to scavenge free radicals is strongly related to the exposed particle surfaces and considerably constrained by the limited number of oxygen vacancies on the surface. While the relatively immobile lattice vacancies in the core of particles do not contribute to the observed scavenging capacity of ceria nanoparticles, it may be possible to access these vacancies to regenerate the consumed oxygen vacancies on the surface to enhance the scavenging activity. In this Early Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project, an unconventional approach, based on the principles of oxygen vacancy migration in the field of solid state ionics, will be applied to explore fundamental relationships between lattice ion mobility and the surface scavenging activity of nanoparticles. The specific objective of the proposed research is to explore the scavenging properties of barium cerate nanoparticles in comparison with ceria nanoparticles in order to compare two compounds with similar transition metal cations (cerium), but with significantly different oxygen-ion mobilities. Utilizing lattice vacancies and continuous regeneration of surface oxygen vacancies to enhance the scavenging activity of nanoparticles is an entirely new concept to advance the field in novel and unexplored ways. A multidisciplinary team will synthesize and characterize oxide nanoparticles, and will evaluate the scavenging activity and redox-induced surface changes of the nanoparticles using spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques.