Modulating nitric oxide-generating activity of zinc oxide by morphology control and surface modification

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Biomedical Engineering
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Zinc oxide (ZnO) exhibits enzyme-mimicking properties for nitric oxide (NO) generation from prodrugs.
• The influence of ZnO's size, shape, and surface chemistry on NO generation remains unexplored.
• Tailoring NO release profiles is crucial for diverse biomedical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the shape-dependent catalytic activity of ZnO for NO generation.
• To functionalize ZnO with zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) for enhanced NO delivery.
• To develop a multifunctional platform combining NO generation and superoxide radical scavenging.

Main Methods:

• Synthesized ZnO nanoparticles with varying shapes.
• Modified ZnO surfaces with in situ synthesized ZIF-8.
• Encapsulated superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme into ZnO/ZIF-8 particles.

Main Results:

• ZnO's NO-generating activity was found to be shape-dependent.
• ZnO/ZIF-8 composites retained 60% of ZnO's NO-generating potency.
• The developed platform effectively generated NO from various prodrugs and scavenged superoxide radicals.

Conclusions:

• ZnO's catalytic NO generation is tunable via particle shape.
• ZnO/ZIF-8 serves as a versatile platform for NO delivery.
• The combined NO-generating and radical-scavenging platform shows potential for combinatorial therapy.