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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
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Thiophene-based water-soluble C70 fullerene derivatives as novel antioxidant agents

Margarita Chetyrkina1 ,  Pavel Umriukhin2,3* ,  Elizaveta Ershova2 ,  Elena Proskurnina2 ,  Vasilina Sergeeva2 ,  Ekaterina Savinova2 ,  Svetlana E. Kostyuk2 ,  Larisa Kameneva2 ,  Olga Kraevaya4 ,  Valeriya Bolshakova4 ,  Pavel Troshin4,5 ,  Tatiana Salimova2 ,  Ivan Rodionov2 ,  Sergey Kutsev2 ,  Natalia Veiko2 ,  Svetlana V. Kostyuk2
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1 Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
2 Department of Molecular Biology, Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Moscow, Russia
3 Department of Normal Physiology, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University), Moscow, Russia
4 Department of Kinetics and Catalysis, Federal Research Centre for Problems of Chemical Physics and Medicinal Chemistry of RAS, Chernogolovka, Russia
5 Zhengzhou Research Institute of HIT, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China
BMT 2025 , 6(3), 359–370; https://doi.org/10.12336/bmt.24.00064
Submitted: 29 September 2024 | Revised: 18 November 2024 | Accepted: 31 December 2024 | Published: 22 September 2025
Copyright © 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 License.
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Abstract

Fullerenes are one of the most popular nanomaterials, and C70 fullerene is the second most common fullerene after C60 buckminsterfullerene. Minor modification of fullerenes derivatives can change their biological effects and antioxidant properties. A plethora of water-soluble derivatives can be synthesised based on buckminsterfullerenes. In the present study, we synthesised three water-soluble C70 fullerene derivatives with thiophene-based solubilising addends and tested their cytotoxicity and the transcriptional activity of genes, which regulate an oxidative metabolism. Aliphatic chain length in the structure of the solubilising addend of the water-soluble fullerene derivative has been varied, and we revealed that a longer chain resulted in more pronounced antioxidant activity. Thus, the surface modification enhances the antioxidant properties of the compound and changes the nanoparticles impact on the genetic apparatus of the cell. Interestingly, even slight modifications of the functional addend’s structure can significantly affect the final cell response. The data obtained can be harnessed to develop novel and efficient medications for the management of ischaemia, stress-related conditions, the prevention of ageing, and the resolution of other practical healthcare challenges.

Keywords
Antioxidants
Fullerenes
NRF2
Reactive oxygen species
Transcription factors
Funding
The synthesis of water-soluble fullerene derivatives was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project No. 22-43-08005, other research was supported by state assignment of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
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Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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