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Fabrication of silymarin-loaded cerium oxide nanoparticles with enhanced antioxidant and antiadhesive effects on surgery-induced peritoneal adhesions in rats

Behnaz Karimi Babaahmadi, Mohammadhossein Farhoumand, Moosa Javdani, Somayeh Reiisi, and Mohammad Hashemnia

Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran

Received: 31 August 2024 Accepted: 9 April 2025

Abstract:

Silymarin has shown potential therapeutic effects in treating numerous diseases due to its therapeutic effects based on its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory activities. The nanoformulations of natural compounds can improve their therapeutic efficacy in treating peritonitis and abdominal adhesions. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop a novel silymarin-loaded cerium oxide nanoparticle and evaluate its antioxidant and antiadhesive effects. CeO₂NPs were described using techniques such as XRD, SEM, TEM, DLS, and FTIR. SEM and TEM reveal the spherical shape of CeO₂NPs of the size within the range of 30–50 nm. The PDI and zeta potential were 0.163 ± 0.104 and − 9.03 ± 1.38 mV, respectively. XRD and FT-IR analysis confirmed the crystalline structure and presence of functional groups OH, C=O, N–H and C=C. In vitro investigations on the drug delivery from the resulting NPs exhibited pH dependency. In the DPPH assay, the highest radical scavenging activity of SLM-loaded CeO₂NPs 75.93% was confirmed in a dose-dependent manner. Thirty healthy male Sprague–Dawley rats were divided into five groups including control, vehicle control, and animals treated with CeO₂NPs, SLM, and SLM-loaded CeO₂NPs, respectively for seven days. The application of SLM-loaded CeO₂NPs reduced the adhesion formation score by lowering the inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and TNF-α) and oxidative stress markers while elevating antioxidant potential. The beneficial effect was also confirmed by the results from ameliorated histological findings. Taken together, the current study introduces an efficient method for synthesizing CeO₂NPs with increased efficacy as both antioxidant and antiadhesive agents, which may be promising in other oxidative stress-related diseases.

Keywords: Mechanism of Action; Mineral Trioxide Aggregate; Nanomaterial; Nanomedicine and Nanotoxicology; Nanoparticles; Cell-nanoparticle Interaction; Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2NPs); Silymarin; Peritoneal adhesion; Antioxidant activity

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-025-04066-9

Chemical Papers 79 (7) 4433–4447 (2025)

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