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 (T-8-, T-10-, and T-12-GAPOSS) by accurately functionalizing the POSS surface with plant polyphenol gallic acid unitsviathiol-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.