Polyphenolic polymers for uranium decorporation with radiation protection effect

The effective decorporation and elimination of excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) are critical for the treatment of uranium internal contamination. Herein, we developed a natural polyphenol-based self-assembled polymer (EGCG-Arg) by the Mannich reaction, which exhibits effective uranium decorporation and ROS scavenging capability. In vivo studies revealed that EGCG-Arg effectively chelate and remove uranium from the kidneys and femurs by efficiencies of 55.7% and 43.5%, and its uranium removal rate in kidneys was approximately 3.5-fold higher than that of CaNa₃-DTPA. Simultaneously, EGCG-Arg effectively scavenged uranium-induced ROS at the cellular level, restoring ROS levels close to those before uranium exposure with a scavenging efficiency of 95%. Benefiting from the inherent biocompatibility of natural products, it exhibited low cytotoxicity, particularly in cells exposed to uranium, showed a protective effect on cell viability. The density functional theory (DFT) calculation elucidated that the equatorial plane of the uranyl ion forms a bidentate coordination structure with EGCG-Arg at the methylene bridge, with a binding energy of -23.7 eV. These findings indicate that EGCG-Arg are capable of scavenging ROS and removing uranium in vivo, highlighting their potential as uranium decorporation agents and expanding the application of natural polyphenols in this field.