In situ synthesized nanozyme for photoacoustic-imaging-guided photothermal therapy and tumor hypoxia relief

Chaoyi Chen; Yuwen Chen; Xuanhao Wang; Lulu Zhang; Yan Luo; Qingshuang Tang; Yuan Wang; Xiaolong Liang; Cheng Ma

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106066

In situ synthesized nanozyme for photoacoustic-imaging-guided photothermal therapy and tumor hypoxia relief

iScience. 2023 Jan 26;26(2):106066. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106066. eCollection 2023 Feb 17.

Authors

Chaoyi Chen¹, Yuwen Chen¹, Xuanhao Wang¹, Lulu Zhang², Yan Luo¹, Qingshuang Tang², Yuan Wang², Xiaolong Liang², Cheng Ma^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electronic Engineering, Beijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
² Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China.
³ Institute for Precision Healthcare, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

Abstract

Nanozymes have attracted extensive research interest due to their ideal enzymatic catalytic performance; however, uncontrollable activities and nonspecific accumulation limit their further clinical application. To overcome these obstacles, we proposed in situ synthesized nanozyme, and realized the concept through an intelligent nanosystem (ISSzyme) based on Prussian blue (PB) precursor. PB nanozyme was synthesized at the tumor sites through the interaction of ISSzyme with glutathione, which was demonstrated by comparing with conventional PB nanozyme. ISSzyme is capable of tumor-specific photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and photothermal therapy (PTT), reducing the false-positive signals of PAI and the treatment side effects of PTT. ISSzyme has catalase-like activities, resulting in tumor hypoxia relief and metastasis inhibition. More importantly, the in situ synthesized PB nanozyme has the favorable property of minimal liver accumulation. Considering the above advantages, ISSzyme is expected to shed light on the design of the next-generation artificial enzymes, with many new biomedical applications.

Keywords: Biomedical engineering; Enzyme engineering.