Curdlan-Decorated Fullerenes Mitigate Immune-Mediated Hepatic Injury for Autoimmune Hepatitis Therapeutics via Reducing Macrophage Infiltration

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a severe immune-mediated inflammatory liver disease whose standard of care is immunosuppressive treatment with inevitable undesired outcomes. Macrophage is acknowledged to aggravate liver damage, providing a promising AIH therapeutic target. Accordingly, in this study, a kind of curdlan-decorated fullerene nanoparticle (Cur-F) is fabricated to alleviate immune-mediated hepatic injury for treating AIH via reducing macrophage infiltration in a concanavalin A (Con A)-induced AIH mouse model. After intravenous administration, Cur-F primarily distributes in liver tissues, efficiently eliminates the excessive reactive oxygen species, significantly attenuates oxidative stress, and subsequently suppresses the nuclear factor kappa-B-gene binding (NF-κB) signal pathway, resulting in the lowered production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the balancing of the immune homeostasis with the prevention of macrophage infiltration in the liver. The regulation of hepatic inflammation contributes to inhibiting inflammatory cytokines-induced hepatocyte apoptosis, decreasing the serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) contents and thus ameliorating immune-mediated hepatic injury. Notably, there is no detectable toxicity to the body. Our findings may open up novel avenues for AIH based on curdlan and fullerene materials.

Inhibiting redox-mediated endothelial migration by gadofullerenes for inducing tumor vascular normalization and improving chemotherapy

Tumor vascular normalization (TVN) reverses abnormal tumor vasculatures, which could boost anti-cancer efficiency and especially increase drug intratumoral delivery. Endothelial cells play a vital role in angiogenesis, yet continuous modulating endothelial cell migration to improve TVN is ingenious but challenging. Here we propose a potential strategy for TVN based on inhibiting endothelial migration using antioxidative fullerene nanoparticles (FNPs). We demonstrate that FNPs inhibit cell migration upon their anti-oxidation effects in vitro. The optimized alanine-modified gadofullerene (GFA) exhibits superior TVN ability and inhibits tumor growth in vivo. Mechanically, facilitated with the protein microarray, we confirm that GFA could suppress the focal adhesion pathway to restrain endothelial migration. Subsequently, remarkable anti-tumor efficacy of chemotherapy synergy was obtained, which benefited from a more normalized vascular network by GFA. Together, our study introduces the potential of FNPs as promising TVN boosters to consider in cancer nanomedicine design.

Nitazoxanide induced myocardial injury in zebrafish embryos by activating oxidative stress response

Nitazoxanide (NTZ) is a broad-spectrum antiparasitic and antiviral drug (thiazole). However, although NTZ has been extensively used, there are no reports concerning its toxicology in vertebrates. This study used the zebrafish as a vertebrate model to evaluate the safety of NTZ and to analyse the related molecular mechanisms. The experimental results showed that zebrafish embryos exposed to NTZ had cardiac malformation and dysfunction. NTZ also significantly inhibited proliferation and promoted apoptosis in cardiomyocytes. Transcriptomic analysis used compared gene expression levels between zebrafish embryos in the NTZ treatment and the control groups identified 200 upregulated genes and 232 downregulated genes. Analysis by Kyoto encyclopaedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) and gene ontology (GO) showed that signal pathways on cardiomyocyte development were inhibited while the oxidative stress pathways were activated. Further experiments showed that NTZ increased the content of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the hearts of zebrafish. Antioxidant gadofullerene nanoparticles (GFNPs) significantly alleviated the developmental toxicity to the heart, indicating that NTZ activated the oxidative stress response to cause embryonic cardiomyocyte injury in zebrafish. This study provides evidence that NTZ causes developmental abnormalities in the cardiovascular system of zebrafish.

Cellular Uptake, Organelle Enrichment, and In Vitro Antioxidation of Fullerene Derivatives, Mediated by Surface Charge

Hydrophilic fullerene derivatives get notable performance in various biological applications, especially in cancer therapy and antioxidation. The biological behaviors of functional fullerenes are much dependent on their surface physicochemical properties. The excellent reactive oxygen species-scavenging capabilities of functional fullerenes promote their outstanding performances in inhibiting pathological symptoms associated with oxidative stress, including neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, acute and chronic kidney disease, and diabetes. Herein, fullerene derivatives with reversed surface charges in aqueous solutions are prepared: cationic C₆₀-EDA and anionic C₆₀-(EDA-EA). Under the driving force of membrane potential (negative inside) in the cell and mitochondria, C₆₀-EDA is much rapidly taken in by cells and transported into mitochondria compared with C₆₀-(EDA-EA) that is enriched in lysosomes. With high cellular uptake and mitochondrial enrichment, C₆₀-EDA exhibits stronger antioxidation capabilities in vitro than C₆₀-(EDA-EA), indicating its better performance in the therapy of oxidation-induced diseases. It is revealed that the cellular uptake rate, subcellular location, and intracellular antioxidation behavior of fullerene derivatives are primarily mediated by their surface charges, providing new strategies for the design of fullerene drugs and their biological applications.