Under healthy physiological conditions, living organisms possess a variety of antioxidant mechanisms to scavenge overproduced reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, under pathological circumstances, endogenous antioxidant systems may not be adequate to eliminate the excessive amount of oxidants, and thus, a continuous exogenous antioxidant income is required. In this regard, sumac (Rhus coriaria) extract is a good candidate for therapeutic applications, because of its high content of antioxidant polyphenolic compounds. In this work, sumac extract-loaded nanosheets (sumac-nanosheet) have been exploited for loading and controlled release of sumac extract, envisioning topical drug delivery applications. Sumac extract has been obtained through the solvent extraction method, and polymeric nanosheets have been thereafter prepared through the spin coating-assisted layer-by-layer deposition of polycaprolactone (PCL), sumac extract, and poly(d,l-lactic acid) (PDLLA). The collected data show a rich content of the sumac extract in terms of polyphenolic compounds, as well as its strong antioxidant properties. Moreover, for the first time in the literature, we demonstrated the possibility of efficiently loading such extract in polymeric nanosheets and the suitability of this nanoplatform as a reactive oxygen species scavenger in human dermal fibroblasts treated with a pro-oxidant insult.
Keywords: human dermal fibroblasts; natural antioxidants; oxidative stress; polymeric nanosheets; sumac (Rhus coriaria).