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An alternate view of fullerene material’s antioxidant activity (NOLF 4 in series: “will nanocarbon onion-like fullerenes (NOLFs) play a decisive role in the future of molecular medicine?”)


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Abstract

Although they have exhibited excellent antioxidant effects in both in vitro and in vivo research, a thorough understanding of fullerene material’s biological interactions and antioxidant activities remain unsettled science. Pristine fullerenes are electrophilic, and potentially, free radical molecules due to an affinity for electrons when excited. They often behave like electron-deficient alkenes and interact with other molecules through addition and substitution reactions. Structurally, fullerenes possess large, dense, electron clouds and an unusual truncated icosahedral arrangement of carbon atoms that form lower Hackle electron orbital vacancies while maintaining the valence saturation of the outer orbital. Fullerene materials are known to bind with mitochondria, microtubules, enzymes, nucleotides, and other cellular proteins and biomolecules, and this has raised concern among some researchers, but the biocompatibility of fullerene materials, and many of their functionalized derivatives, is now generally accepted. Pristine fullerene materials are often referred to as “super free radical scavengers,” but this is an unlikely primary mechanism in biological systems where oxidative stress management is enzymatically responsive to the dynamic quantum criticality of living systems by necessity. Alternately, fullerene material’s strong electron affinity is consistent with preventing excess electrons in the ETC by functioning in a capacitor-like electron sink mechanism. There mild electrophilic nature stimulates Nrf-2/ARE pathways producing both an antioxidant response, as well as, mitochondrial biogenesis helping to maintain mitochondrial homeostasis. Finally, bio coronation may allow pristine fullerene materials to scavenge radicals while maintaining dynamic cellular regulation of antioxidant/ROS balance.

Keywords

Fullerene materials, perturbative stress, oxidative stress regulation, cell danger response, mitohormesis, para-hormesis, super free radical scavengers, electrophiles, nucleophilic tone, uncoupling proteins, mitochondrial biogenesis

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