Reactive Oxygen Species Scavenging Nanozymes: Emerging Therapeutics for Acute Liver Injury Alleviation

Abstract

Acute liver injury (AIL), a fatal clinical disease featured with a swift deterioration of hepatocyte functions in the short term, has emerged as a serious public health issues that warrants attention. However, the effectiveness of existing small molecular antioxidants and anti-inflammatory medications in alleviating AIL remains uncertain. The unique inherent structural characteristics of liver confer it a natural propensity for nanoparticle capture, which present an opportunity to exploit in the formulation of nanoscale therapeutic agents, enabling their selective accumulation in the liver and thereby facilitating targeted therapeutic interventions. Significantly increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and inflammation response have been evidenced to play crucial roles in occurrence and development of AIL. Nanozymes with ROS-scavenging capacities have demonstrated considerable promise in ROS elimination and inflammation regulation, thereby offering an appealing therapeutic instrument for the management of acute liver injury. In this review, the mechanisms of different type of ALI were summarized. In addition, we provide a comprehensive summary and review of the available ROS-scavenging nanozymes, including transition metal-based nanozymes, noble metal nanozymes, carbon-based nanozymes, and some other nanozymes. Furthermore, the challenges still need to be solved in the field of ROSscavenging nanozymes for ALI alleviation are also discussed.

The protective effect of Thai rice bran on N-acetyl-ρ-aminophen-induced hepatotoxicity in mice

“…High liver enzyme levels including ALT and AST correspond to the increase of ROS and lipid peroxidation in the liver damage and necrotize hepatocytes. This study shows that drug-induced liver damage ( 44 45 46 ) requires ROS-targeted treatments.…”

“…( 43 ) and Sun et al . ( 44 ), correctly determining the prevalence of liver injury in humans is difficult, but it is the main cause of acute liver failure. Drug-induced liver injury including acute or chronic liver damage might be caused by the use of natural or synthetic drugs ( 45 46 ).…”