Oxidative stress and inflammation are interconnected drivers of cellular damage in pathologies ranging from neurodegenerative disorders to sensorineural hearing loss. We aimed to develop a chitosan-Prussian blue nanozyme (CS-PB) to target these processes in sensorineural hearing loss.
CS-PB (35 μg/mL) pretreatment of H2O2-injured HEI-OC1 cochlear cells for 4 h markedly decreased the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) inside cells (from 3.8 to 2.4 relative fluorescence intensity) by approximately 37% (P < 0.001)-and concomitantly significantly decreased expression of the oxidative damage markers 4-HNE and 3-NT (both P < 0.001). The rate of apoptosis decreased from 27.5% in the H2O2-treated group to 14.1% following CS-PB treatment (P < 0.01).
This reduction was accompanied by a significant downregulation of the pro-apoptotic proteins Bax (P < 0.05) and Cleaved-caspase-3 (P < 0.001), as well as an upregulation of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-XL (P < 0.01).Western blot analysis confirmed that CS–PB significantly downregulated TLR4 expression and inhibited downstream phosphorylation of p-P65/P65, while upregulating p-IκBα/IκBα protein (all P < 0.01) associated with reduction in the production of inflammatory cytokines like TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6.
Frontiers in Immunology published a clinical update in Infectious Disease on 21 Apr 2026.
The item focuses on Studies of chitosan-Prussian blue nanozyme in auditory protection: from cellular mechanisms to in vivo validation.
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