Ultrasmall Nanoparticle ROS Scavengers Based on Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes.

Although tremendous efforts have been devoted to the structural and functional tailoring of natural polyphenol-functionalized nanoparticles, preparing ultrasmall sized (< 6 nm) particles with precisely-defined structures has remained a grand challenge. In this work, we reported the preparation of ultra-small and precisely structured polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS)-based polyphenol nanoparticles (T8-, T10-, and T12-GAPOSS) by accurately functionalizing the POSS surface with plant polyphenol gallic acid units via thiol-Michael "click" reactions. Those polyphenol nanoparticles exhibited strong free radical scavenging capacity, good biocompatibility and ability to resist cell oxidative damage, which demonstrated great potentials in inhibiting oxidative stress induced pathologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]