Peroxidase-like Nanozymes for Point-of-Care SERS Sensing and Wound Healing
Lulu Qu, Jing Han, Yi Huang, Guohai Yang, Weijie Liu, Zhouyang Long, Yingqiu Gu, Qingming Zhang, Ming Gao, Xiaochen Dong
Abstract
The emergence of nanozymes provides a potential method for combating multidrug-resistant bacteria resulted from the abuse of antibiotics. However, in nanozyme-catalyzed systems, few studies have addressed the actual hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) level involved in sterilization. Herein, we designed a high-efficiency peroxidase-mimicking nanozyme with surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) property by assembling gold nanoparticles on single-layer Cu 2+ -C 3 N 4 (AuNP-Cu 2+ -C 3 N 4 ). The nanozyme effectively converts the low-active Raman reporter 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) into its oxidized form with H 2 O 2, resulting in SERS signal changes, thereby achieving highly sensitive quantification of H 2 O 2 with limit of detection as low as 0.60 μM. More importantly, the nanozyme can specifically catalyze H 2 O 2 into antibacterial hydroxyl radicals. In vitro and in vivo evaluations demonstrate the remarkable antibacterial efficacy of the nanozyme/H 2 O 2 combination against Staphylococcus aureus (up to 99.9%), which could promote wound healing in mice and allow point-of-care monitoring the amount of H 2 O 2 participated in effective sterilization. This study not only displays great potential in combining multiple functionalities of nanomaterials for versatile bioassays but also provides a promising approach to design nanozymes for biomedical and catalytic applications.