Facile Synthesis of Hollow MnO₂ Nanoparticles for Reactive Oxygen Species Scavenging in Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive degenerative joint disease whose molecular mechanism has not been revealed clearly, and there is still no effective approach to cure OA completely. Recently, reactive oxygen species (ROS) are exposed as an important mediator of OA’s inflammatory response, and it has been regarded as a therapeutic target for OA treatment. MnO2 nanoparticles possess good biocompatibility and can act as an artificial nanoenzyme to scavenge ROS in various diseases effectively. In this study, the modified Stöber method was applied to synthesize hollow MnO2 (H-MnO2) and H-MnO2 was modified with NH2-PEG-NH2, which possesses excellent biological stability and biocompatibility. It induced a change in the articular cartilage structure changes in vivo, with the knee tissue staining and micro-CT scanning of the whole knee suggesting that H-MnO2 nanoparticles could effectively remove ROS and significantly relieve the inflammatory response of OA without obvious side effects. This study reveals the therapeutic effects of MnO2-based nanomedicine toward OA, which provides potential alternative therapeutic options for patients with inflammation tissue.