posted on 2024-01-18, 03:03authored byJing Wang, Ruibang Wu, Zheng Liu, Lin Qi, Huilun Xu, Hao Yang, Yubao Li, Limin Liu, Ganjun Feng, Li Zhang
Early intervention during intervertebral disc degeneration
(IDD)
plays a vital role in inhibiting its deterioration and activating
the regenerative process. Aiming at the high oxidative stress (OS)
in the IDD microenvironment, a core–shell structured nanozyme
composed of Co-doped NiO nanoparticle (CNO) as the core encapsulated
with a polydopamine (PDA) shell, named PDA@CNO, was constructed, hoping
to regulate the pathological environment. The results indicated that
the coexistence of abundant Ni3+/Ni2+and Co3+/Co2+redox couples in CNO provided rich catalytic
sites; meanwhile, the quinone and catechol groups in the PDA shell
could enable the proton-coupled electron transfer, thus endowing the
PDA@CNO nanozyme with multiple antioxidative enzyme-like activities
to scavenge •O2–, H2O2, and •OH efficiently. Under OS conditions in vitro, PDA@CNO could effectively reduce the intracellular
ROS in nucleus pulposus (NP) into friendly H2O and O2, to protect NP cells from stagnant proliferation, abnormal
metabolism (senescence, mitochondria dysfunction, and impaired redox
homeostasis), and inflammation, thereby reconstructing the extracellular
matrix (ECM) homeostasis. The in vivo local injection
experiments further proved the desirable therapeutic effects of the
PDA@CNO nanozyme in a rat IDD model, suggesting great potential in
prohibiting IDD from deterioration.