The
present work reports a new method for the green chemical synthesis
of biomaterials using an integrated, room-temperature, aqueous, chemical
technique involving surfactant-free precipitation of nanoceria, surface
silanization, and functionalization with zwitterionic agents by metal-free
organocatalyzed photoinduced electron transfer atom-transfer radical
polymerization (O-PET-ATRP). The synthesis mechanism for each of these
steps is presented. The present work is the first to report the use
of water, rather than organic solvent, as medium for O-PET-ATRP. The
nanoparticles were characterized by FTIR, laser Raman microspectroscopy,
XPS, TGA, TEM, and NMR. The functionalization resulted in retention
of nanoparticle shape, hindrance of plasma protein adsorption, maintenance
of small hydrodynamic size, and establishment of a near-electroneutral
surface. The latter demonstrates that the zwitterion formed a continuous
passivating layer on the nanoceria surfaces. These outcomes resulted
in higher uptake of functionalized nanoceria and enhanced redox performance.
Nanoceria provided cytoprotection to normal cells while cytotoxicity
was observed in fibrosarcoma cells. Nanoparticles generated pH-controlled
redox responses in fibrosarcoma cells where, at physiological conditions
of pH 7.4, antioxidant activities were observed while prooxidant behavior
was generated at tumor microenvironment conditions of pH 6.4. These
effects were accentuated at both pH values for functionalized nanoceria,
which is a direct result of the functionalization.