Article abstract


Nature Nanotechnology 1, 142 - 150 (2006)
Published online: 29 October 2006 | doi:10.1038/nnano.2006.91

Subject Categories: Nanomedicine | Nanoparticles

Rare earth nanoparticles prevent retinal degeneration induced by intracellular peroxides: 

Junping Chen1,2, Swanand Patil5, Sudipta Seal5 & James F. McGinnis1,2,3,4


Photoreceptor cells are incessantly bombarded with photons of light, which, along with the cells' high rate of oxygen metabolism, continuously exposes them to elevated levels of toxic reactive oxygen intermediates (ROIs). Vacancy-engineered mixed-valence-state cerium oxide nanoparticles (nanoceria particles) scavenge ROIs. Our data show that nanoceria particles prevent increases in the intracellular concentrations of ROIs in primary cell cultures of rat retina and, in vivo, prevent loss of vision due to light-induced degeneration of photoreceptor cells. These data indicate that the nanoceria particles may be effective in inhibiting the progression of ROI-induced cell death, which is thought to be involved in macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and other blinding diseases, as well as the ROI-induced death of other cell types in diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, atherosclerosis, stroke and so on. The use of nanoceria particles as a direct therapy for multiple diseases represents a novel strategy and suggests that they may represent a unique platform technology.

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  1. Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience
  2. Dean A. McGee Eye Institute
  3. Department of Cell Biology
  4. Department of Ophthalmology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73104, USA
  5. Surface Engineering and Nanotechnology Facility, Advanced Materials Processing Analysis Center, Mechanical Materials Aerospace Engineering, Nanoscience and Technology Center, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32816, USA

Correspondence to: James F. McGinnis1,2,3,4 e-mail: james-mcginnis@ouhsc.edu

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