Pharmacological potential of cerium oxide nanoparticles

Nanotechnology promises a revolution in pharmacology to improve or create ex novo therapies. Cerium oxide nanoparticles (nanoceria), well-known as catalysts, possess an astonishing pharmacological potential due to their antioxidant properties, deriving from a fraction of Ce(3+) ions present in CeO(2). These defects, compensated by oxygen vacancies, are enriched at the surface and therefore in nanosized particles. Reactions involving redox cycles between the Ce(3+) and Ce(4+) oxidation states allow nanoceria to react catalytically with superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, mimicking the behavior of two key antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase and catalase, potentially abating all noxious intracellular reactive…