Recently, the research team from Department of Infectious Diseases of the First Affiliated Hospital (FAH) of Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) published a research article entitled "Ultra-small quercetin-based nanotherapeutics ameliorate acute liver failure by combatting inflammation/cellular senescence cycle" in Theranostics (impact factor: 12.4), revealing the pivotal role of ultra-small quercetin-Fe nanoparticles (QFN) in the treatment of acute liver failure. Department of Infectious Diseases of FAH is the first corresponding affiliation, and Professor He Yingli is the last corresponding author.

Acute liver failure is a severe liver disease characterized by the production of a large amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to cell aging and significant inflammatory reaction. The aging-related secretory phenotype secreted by aging cells will aggravate inflammation, which will promote cell aging instead. Quercetin, as a natural polyphenol compound, possesses high ROS scavenging capability and anti-inflammatory and anti-aging potential, whereas extremely low water solubility constrains its clinical application. The team adopted a simple and stable coordination method to synthesize subminiature QFN. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments confirmed that QFN has excellent water solubility and highly-efficient ROS scavenging ability, which can effectively inhibit macrophage-mediated inflammation, alleviate the aging of liver cells, and then mitigate the progression of acute liver failure. In this study, a novel treatment strategy is proposed, which breaks the vicious circle between inflammation and cell aging, develops a method of delivering quercetin in vivo, significantly improves the safety of quercetin and lays a foundation for clinical translation and application.

This study is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China. Feng Yali, a doctoral student from Department of Infectious Diseases of FAH, is the first author. Professor Li Dongmin and Professor Zhang Mingzhen from School of Basic Medical Sciences of XJTU and Professor He Yingli from Department of Infectious Diseases of FAH are co-corresponding authors, respectively.