Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) are associated with various inflammatory physiological processes and diseases, highlighting the need for their regulation to mitigate the detrimental effects of oxidative stress and to reduce cellular damage and disease progression. Here, we demonstrate cerium oxide (ceria) nanorods synthesized using a sol-gel method followed by heat treatment, called "AHT-CeNRs", as an efficient intracellular ROS scavenger. The synthesized AHT-CeNRs exhibited exceptional superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT)-like activities, both of which are crucial for converting ROS into harmless products. This was attributed to their high crystallinity, large surface area, numerous defects including oxygen vacancies, and abundant Ce