Renal Clearable Luminescent WSe₂ for Radioprotection of Nontargeted Tissues during Radiotherapy

Abstract

High‐energy ionizing radiation is widely used in medical diagnosis and cancer radiation therapy. However, high‐energy radiation can also impose significant damages in healthy tissues during medical treatments via direct DNA damages and indirect damages from production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Therefore, it is urgent to develop highly effective radioprotectants with low toxicities that can meet the increasing needs for alleviating the adverse effects from cancer radiation therapy and nuclear emergency. In this work, strongly catalytic ultrasmall (sub‐5 nm) cysteine‐protected WSe2 dots are employed to protect healthy tissues against radiation via diminishing radiation‐induced free radicals. The WSe2 dots with high surface activities can recover radiation‐induced DNA damages and eliminate the excessive ROS generated from radiation. In vivo experiments confirm that the survival rate of mice treated with WSe2 dots is significantly elevated with radiation damages postponed under exposure to high‐dose ionizing radiation. Furthermore, the free radicals in major organs and hematological system can be appreciably omitted, suggesting their unique role as free radical scavengers. These WSe2 dots in ultrasmall size show rapid renal clearance of ≈74% injection dose via urine excretion in 24 h and do not cause any apparent toxicity in vivo for up to 30 d.

Hollow PtPdRh Nanocubes with Enhanced Catalytic Activities for In Vivo Clearance of Radiation‐Induced ROS via Surface‐Mediated Bond Breaking

“…The prepared Pt‐based nanocatalysts (200 µL per mouse, 5 mg mL −1 ) were intraperitoneally injected into the mice and the mice were then exposed to 7.3 Gy γ‐radiation. The survival rate of mice with only radiation labeled as control decreased to absolute 0 after 18 d (Figure g), which conforms to the acute damages and even death induced by high‐energy radiation . Meanwhile, the survival rate of mice injected with Pt, PtPd, and PtPdRh after 30 d was maintained at 30%, 40%, and 50% respectively, which indicates an effective radiation protection effect of Pt‐based catalysts.…”

“…The intrinsic protective mechanism in cells through releasing antioxidative molecules such as glutathione and metallothionein is insufficient to shield such damages. Consequently, great efforts have been made to explore efficient and promising extrinsic agents which can reduce radiotoxicity to normal . Nevertheless, a nanocatalyst with strong free‐radical‐scavenging activities is still an unmet need and the related mechanism is not understood completely.…”

Fluorescence enhancement of gold nanoclustersviaZn doping for biomedical applications

“…The uorescence signal of irradiated cells with incubation of GSH-protected AuZn alloy NCs becomes much brighter than only irradiated cells, suggesting the ability of ROS proliferation. 49,50 Fig. 5c gives quantitative investigation of the ROS levels by ow cytometer, demonstrating that GSH-protected AuZn alloy NCs could achieve the cancer radiation-sensitizing therapy.…”

Naturally-Derived PHA-L Protein Nanoparticle as a Radioprotector Through Activation of Toll-Like Receptor 5

“…Apoptosis testing was carried according to terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) kit (Beyotime, C1090) as described before. 50…”