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Innovative Medicines & Omics

REVIEW ARTICLE
Recent advances in antioxidant nanomedicines

Bowen Yang * and Jianlin Shi *
1,2
1
1 Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Research Unit of Nanocatalytic
Medicine in Specific Therapy for Serious Disease, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
(2021RU012), Shanghai, China
2 Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, Shanghai Frontiers Science Center of Nanocatalytic Medicine,
School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Abstract

Oxidative stress is a common pathogenic factor for various human diseases. Therefore,
mitigating or even eliminating oxidative stress by scavenging excessive reactive oxygen
species (ROS) at pathological sites is of great importance in disease treatments. Although
several molecular antioxidants have been used in clinics for treating oxidative stress-
related diseases, their efficacies are still less satisfactory. Due to the advances in chemistry
and nanotechnology, various antioxidant nanomedicines with diversified morphologies,
structures, and compositions have been developed to trigger antioxidation reactions
in lesion regions, mitigating oxidative stress in cells and regulating the inflammatory
microenvironments, finally resulting in disease treatment. In this review, recent progresses
achieved in this field are summarized and discussed in a comprehensive manner, with an
emphasis on the underlying chemical mechanisms by which antioxidant nanomedicines
scavenge ROS in response to the specific microenvironments of pathological regions. It
is highly expected that a better understanding on the unique chemistry of antioxidant
nanomedicines will facilitate the generation of more feasible antioxidant strategies for
*Corresponding authors: the treatments of oxidative stress-associated diseases.
Bowen Yang
(yangbowen@mail.sic.ac.cn)
Jianlin Shi Keywords: Nanomedicine; Antioxidant therapy; Oxidative stress; Microenvironment regulation
(jlshi@mail.sic.ac.cn)
Citation: Yang B, Shi J.
Recent advances in antioxidant
nanomedicines. Innov Med Omics. 1. Introduction
2024;1(1):1-69.
doi: 10.36922/imo.2527 The overexpression of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells results in pathological
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Received: December 25, 2023 oxidative stress, a common biochemical factor for the occurrence and progression
Accepted: January 17, 2024 of various human diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, rheumatoid arthritis,
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Published Online: February 13, 2024
neurodegenerative diseases, acute kidney injury, and inflammatory bowel disease .
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Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). Biological ROS mainly includes superoxide anion (O ), hydrogen peroxide (H O ), and
•−
This is an Open-Access article 2 2 2
distributed under the terms of the hydroxyl radical (•OH), which are produced by sequential one-electron reduction of
Creative Commons Attribution oxygen (Equation I), followed by the increased oxidability. 7
License, permitting distribution,
e
e
e
and reproduction in any medium, O O HO OH (I)

provided the original work is 2 2 2 2
properly cited. O and H O are the main forms of ROS in cells while the production of •OH
•−
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2
2+ 8
Publisher’s Note: AccScience from H O necessitates the presence of transition metal (usually Fe ). Cells have
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Publishing remains neutral with endogenous antioxidant defense systems such as glutathione (GSH) to counteract
regard to jurisdictional claims in 9
published maps and institutional ROS, or antioxidases like superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase to catalyze the
•−
affiliations. disproportionation of O and H O , respectively (Equations II and III): 10
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Volume 1 Issue 1 (2024) 1 doi: 10.36922/imo.2527