Bimetal Biomimetic Engineering Utilizing Metal–Organic Frameworks for Superoxide Dismutase Mimic
Tong Wu, Siming Huang, Hongling Yang, Niru Ye, Linjing Tong, Guosheng Chen, Quan Zhou, Gangfeng Ouyang
Abstract
In the past decade, scientists sought to engineer nanomaterials with natural enzymes-like biological function, and searched for newfangled applications. Herein, we show the first example of utilizing a bimetal metal–organic framework (MOF-818) platform for mimicking of Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn-SOD), an important antioxidant enzyme that specifically scavenges superoxide anions. Experimental data and theoretical calculations reveal that the high Cu/Zn-SOD-like activity of MOF-818 results from the bimetal synergistic catalysis, which is analogous to natural Cu/Zn-SOD. Such a bimetal biomimetic process allows for MOF-818 with much higher SOD-like activity, compared to the reported monometallic MOFs mimics. Moreover, the SOD-like MOF-818 displays excellent stability against heating, organic solvents, and denaturant treatments, which should inactivate natural enzymes. Based on the catalytic mechanism, we also construct a MOF-818-based colorimetric sensing platform for phosphorylated peptides and proteins detection. This work provides a new insight for biomimetic engineering, and may expedite the scale-up applications of SOD-like nanozymes in various fields.