{"doi":"10.3390/antiox9101005","title":"Antioxidant Carbon Nanoparticles Inhibit Fibroblast-Like Synoviocyte Invasiveness and Reduce Disease Severity in a Rat Model of Rheumatoid Arthritis","abstract":"Reactive oxygen species have been involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Our goal was to determine the effects of selectively scavenging superoxide (O2•−) and hydroxyl radicals with antioxidant nanoparticles, called poly(ethylene glycol)-functionalized hydrophilic carbon clusters (PEG-HCCs), on the pathogenic functions of fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and on the progression of an animal model of RA. We used human FLS from patients with RA to determine PEG-HCC internalization and effects on FLS cytotoxicity, invasiveness, proliferation, and production of proteases. We used the pristane-induced arthritis (PIA) rat model of RA to assess the benefits of PEG-HCCs on reducing disease severity. PEG-HCCs were internalized by RA-FLS, reduced their intracellular O2•−, and reduced multiple measures of their pathogenicity in vitro, including proliferation and invasion. In PIA, PEG-HCCs caused a 65% reduction in disease severity, as measured by a standardized scoring system of paw inflammation and caused a significant reduction in bone and tissue damage, and circulating rheumatoid factor. PEG-HCCs did not induce lymphopenia during PIA. Our study demonstrated a role for O2•− and hydroxyl radicals in the pathogenesis of a rat model of RA and showed efficacy of PEG-HCCs in treating a rat model of RA.","journal":"Antioxidants","year":2020,"id":115117,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9586,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":540672,"name":"Redwan Huq","orcid":"0000-0002-8884-7841","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":540673,"name":"William K. A. Sikkema","orcid":"0000-0001-9614-3935","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":540674,"name":"Christian Nilewski","orcid":"0000-0003-0949-9170","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":382157,"name":"Nejla Yosef","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":541256,"name":"Cody Schmitt","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":541257,"name":"Carlos P. Flores-Suarez","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":541258,"name":"Arielle Raugh","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":541259,"name":"Teresina Laragione","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":319997,"name":"Pércío S. Gulko","orcid":"0000-0002-3786-3809","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":94395,"name":"James M. Tour","orcid":"0000-0002-8479-9328","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":241983,"name":"Christine Beeton","orcid":"0000-0002-2500-5874","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":241976,"name":"Mark R. Tanner","orcid":"0000-0002-6516-0166","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":59,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:13:36.820928Z","pmid":"33081234","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}