Antioxidants are substances that help prevent or hinder cells from being damaged by free radicals or reactive oxygen species (ROS). A new study by Texan scientists reveals how oxidized activated charcoal can be used to treat injuries, strokes, and possibly coronavirus.
The team's oxidized activated charcoal is more complex than the trending activated charcoal that's been commonly seen in beauty products and food. The treated charcoal resulted in artificial enzymes powerful enough to reduce the levels of superoxides in the body, or high concentrations of oxygen levels that become toxic.
The Texas Medical Center team developed nanozymes, antioxidants that have the ability to reduce ROS damage. As a response to injury and stroke, the nanozymes produced more antioxidants.
A collaboration between Rice University, the University of Texas Health Science Center's McGovern Medical School, and the Texas A&M Health Science Center created a study published in the American Chemical Society Applied Nano Materials journal. They hope to apply the new charcoal treatment to patients with coronavirus.
Activated Charcoal
In their experiments, they worked with superoxide dismutases (SOD) in the form of a biocompatible and highly soluble oxidized charcoal. Superoxide dismutases can break apart ROS into hydrogen peroxide and oxygen so that damage to the body would slow down and heal.
One of the chemists from Rice University, James Tour, helped extract graphene quantum dots from coal and polyethylene glycol-hydrophilic carbon clusters made from carbon nanotubes. These materials were tested if they could activate the treatment of repair in the body.
The oxidized charcoal nanoparticles were not only effect antioxidants, but they can be extracted from inexpensive activated charcoal. Activated charcoal that is certified for good manufacturing practice (GMP) is already being used for acute poisoning treatment.
Neurologist Thomas Kent from A&M and biochemist Ah-Lim Tsai from UTHealth shared that 'That these nanozymes are made from a GMP source opens the door for drug manufacturers. While coal was effective, an issue is that it can have a variety of toxic metallic elements and impurities that are not consistent across samples. And the clusters made from carbon nanotubes are very expensive.'
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Treating Injury, Stroke, and Coronavirus
The nanozymes are disc-like and made from the power of medical-grade charcoal. The charcoal is then oxidized by being treated with a high concentration of nitric acid. With the nanozymes full of oxygen molecules, they break down superoxides commonly found in lung diseases and other illnesses.
Tour explained how the nanozymes can pass through the mitochondria within cells and block the source of free radicals without damaging the cells. 'We published a paper on this recently,' he said. 'This seems to be really important to why these work so well in traumatic brain injury and stroke.T
he team also shared that their nanozyme study can be used to treat cytokine storms, or when an infection is met by an excessive immune response which is suspected to cause organ and tissue damage from the coronavirus. Kent said, 'While speculative that these particles will be helpful in COVID-19, if [the] administration is timed correctly, they could reduce the damaging radicals that accompany the cytokine storm and could be further chemically modified to reduce other injury-causing features of this disease.'
