In vivo guiding nitrogen-doped carbon nanozyme for tumor catalytic therapy

TLDR

Nanozymes are widely used as artificial enzymes in biomedicine, yet controlling their in vivo performance in target cells remains challenging. The study reports a strategy to coordinate nanozymes to target tumor cells and selectively destroy tumors. The authors engineered nitrogen‑doped porous carbon nanospheres with oxidase, peroxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase activities, and used ferritin to guide them into lysosomes, boosting tumor‑specific reactive oxygen species generation. The ferritin‑guided nanozymes effectively regulated intracellular reactive oxygen species and achieved significant tumor regression in xenograft mice, demonstrating their promise for in vivo tumor catalytic therapy.

Abstract

Abstract Nanomaterials with intrinsic enzyme-like activities (nanozymes), have been widely used as artificial enzymes in biomedicine. However, how to control their in vivo performance in a target cell is still challenging. Here we report a strategy to coordinate nanozymes to target tumor cells and selectively perform their activity to destruct tumors. We develop a nanozyme using nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanospheres which possess four enzyme-like activities (oxidase, peroxidase, catalase and superoxide dismutase) responsible for reactive oxygen species regulation. We then introduce ferritin to guide nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanospheres into lysosomes and boost reactive oxygen species generation in a tumor-specific manner, resulting in significant tumor regression in human tumor xenograft mice models. Together, our study provides evidence that nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanospheres are powerful nanozymes capable of regulating intracellular reactive oxygen species, and ferritinylation is a promising strategy to render nanozymes to target tumor cells for in vivo tumor catalytic therapy.