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

1708057渴望：提高氧化物纳米颗粒的自由基清除活性超越目前的限制-通过多学科科学的非常规解决方案活性氧是作为生物系统中正常代谢的天然副产品形成的。 它们的水平可以在环境压力期间急剧增加，例如太阳的紫外线，电离辐射，暴露于有毒化学品，大气污染物和炎症。活性氧的产生和抗氧化剂对其的清除之间的不平衡导致这些物质在体内的净积累，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抑制各种活性氧的能力。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，更有效的治疗性纳米颗粒。该研究项目旨在建立一种新的方法来设计和工程化纳米粒子，具有高效捕获生物系统中的活性氧的能力。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，并最终影响社会的健康状况和福祉。除了这项研究对纳米粒子用于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用于新兴应用的高响应性和选择性纳米粒子，例如真实的时间选择性生物传感器，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。氧化铈纳米颗粒在细胞和动物模型中表现出了积极抑制各种活性氧的潜力。二氧化铈纳米颗粒抑制自由基的能力与暴露的颗粒表面密切相关，并且受到表面上有限数量的氧空位的极大限制。虽然颗粒核中相对固定的晶格空位对所观察到的二氧化铈纳米颗粒的清除能力没有贡献，但可以接近这些空位以在表面上再生消耗的氧空位，从而增强清除活性。在这个探索性研究早期资助（EAGER）项目中，将应用一种基于固态离子学领域氧空位迁移原理的非常规方法来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。所提出的研究的具体目标是探索铈酸钡纳米颗粒与二氧化铈纳米颗粒相比的清除性能，以比较具有相似过渡金属阳离子（铈）但具有显著不同氧离子迁移率的两种化合物。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，以新颖和未探索的方式推进该领域。一个多学科小组将合成和表征氧化物纳米颗粒，并将使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.