Fullerene-Like MoS2 Nanoparticles as Cascade Catalyst Improving Lubricant and Antioxidant Abilities of Artificial Synovial Fluid

Intraarticular injection of hyaluronic acid (HA) for viscosupplementation is a non-surgical therapy for osteoarthritis (OA). However, HA fails to lubricate under significant load and tends to be depolymerized by the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in inflammation. Here, we for the first time reported that fullerene-like MoS2 (F-MoS2) nanoparticles are efficient lubricant and antioxidant for artificial synovial fluid. A model of arthrosis was built, to evaluate the tribological behavior of F-MoS2 nanoparticles. The tests showed that they significantly improve the anti-wear and friction-reducing abilities of the artificial synovial fluid. More importantly, the F-MoS2 nanoparticles possess intrinsic dualenzyme-like activity, mimicking superoxide dismutases (SOD) and catalases (CAT) under physiological conditions (pH 7.4, 25℃). Coupling these unique properties, a self-organized cascade catalytic system was constructed, which includes the dismutation of superoxide radicals (O2•-) to hydrogen pe...