Electron-conjugation facilitates electron transfer of hemoglobin by Ce(OH)3 nanorods

Scientists from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing, China) led by Kebin Zhou investigated the interaction between nanorods of Ce(OH)3 and CeO2 and the redox protein hemoglobin.

Graphical abstract for C3RA40336JThe nano-bio interfaces, such as those between inorganic nanomaterials and biological systems, are gaining a significant amount of interest due to their importance in biomedical applications, but also out of concerns over the bio-safety of nano-engineered particles.  In the case of ceria-based nanomaterials, some studies have found they were able to prevent the increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in vitro and in vivo due to the existence of Ce3+.  However, others have found that some of these materials could actually generate ROS and cause toxicity to cells as Ce4+ is reduced to Ce3+.

In this work, Zhou and co-workers hydrothermally prepared Ce(OH)3 and CeO2 nanorods and studied their interaction with a typical redox protein hemoglobin through an electrochemical method combined with Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy.  Ce(OH)3 was found to be more efficient in enhancing the direct electron-transfer of hemoglobin which may be due to the strong electron-conjugation interaction.

Read the full article for free until the 7th May 2013.

Strong electron-conjugation interaction facilitates electron transfer of hemoglobin by Ce(OH)3nanorods, Lei Wang, Qingfen Luan, Dan Yang, Xin Yao and Kebin Zhou, RSC Adv., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C3RA40336J

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