Orally administration of cerium oxide nanozyme for computed tomography imaging and anti-inflammatory/anti-fibrotic therapy of inflammatory bowel disease

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic nonspecific disease with unknown etiology. Currently, the anti-inflammatory therapeutic approaches have achieved a certain extent of effects in terms of inflammation alleviation. Still, the final pathological outcome of intestinal fibrosis has not been effectively improved yet. RESULTS: In this study, dextran-coated cerium oxide (D-CeO(2)) nanozyme with superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities was synthesized by chemical precipitation. Our results showed that D-CeO(2) could efficiently scavenge reactive oxide species (ROS) as well as downregulate the pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and iNOS) to protect cells from H(2)O(2)-induced oxidative damage. Moreover, D-CeO(2) could suppress the expression of fibrosis-related gene levels, such as α-SMA, and Collagen 1/3, demonstrating the anti-fibrotic effect. In both TBNS- and DSS-induced colitis models, oral administration of D-CeO(2) in chitosan/alginate hydrogel alleviated intestinal inflammation, reduced colonic damage by scavenging ROS, and decreased inflammatory factor levels. Notably, our findings also suggested that D-CeO(2) reduced fibrosis-related cytokine levels, predicting a contribution to alleviating colonic fibrosis. Meanwhile, D-CeO(2) could also be employed as a CT contrast agent for noninvasive gastrointestinal tract (GIT) imaging. CONCLUSION: We introduced cerium oxide nanozyme as a novel therapeutic approach with computed tomography (CT)-guided anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic therapy for the management of IBD. Collectively, without appreciable systemic toxicity, D-CeO(2) held the promise of integrated applications for diagnosis and therapy, pioneering the exploration of nanozymes with ROS scavenging capacity in the anti-fibrotic treatment of IBD. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12951-023-01770-0.