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Inhalable nanocatalytic therapeutics for viral pneumonia

Nature Materials volume 24, pages 637–648 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Pneumonia is a ubiquitous disease caused by viral and bacterial infections, characterized by high levels of reactive oxygen species in inflamed areas. Therapeutic strategies targeting reactive oxygen species levels in pneumonia have limited success due to the intricate nature of lung tissues and lung inflammatory responses. Here we describe an inhalable, non-invasive therapeutic platform composed of engineered cerium-based tannic acid nanozymes bound to a self-assembling peptide. In vitro and in vivo studies show that the nanozyme is internalized mostly by activated macrophages and epithelial cells in the inflamed sites. In the oxidative environments of a mouse model of viral pneumonia, nanozyme aggregates into catalytically active structures that reduce reactive oxygen species levels and inflammatory cytokine production and promote macrophage polarization to the prohealing (M2) phenotype. Moreover, the nanozyme attenuates bacterial inflammation and reduces tissue damage in a mouse viral pneumonia model with secondary bacterial infection. Overall, this nanozyme platform is a promising strategy for treating pneumonia and its associated conditions.

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Fig. 1: Synthesis and enzyme-like characterization of CeTA nanozymes.
Fig. 2: Self-assembly performance of CeTA-K1tkP nanoplatform.
Fig. 3: Self-assembly and retention effect of CeTA-K1tkP nanoplatform in the inflammatory environment.
Fig. 4: The therapeutic effect of CeTA-K1tkP on H1N1-mediated pneumonia.
Fig. 5: Self-assembled nanoplatform CeTA-K1tkP for the treatment of SeV-mediated pneumonia.
Fig. 6: CeTA-K1tkP nanoplatform eliminates lung inflammation in virus–bacteria co-infection pneumonia model.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information and are available from the corresponding authors upon request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32271400 to B.Z., 82271872 to W.T., 32100755 to W.T., 82341046 to W.T. and 32188101 to G.C.), National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFC2600503 to B.Z., 2021YFC2300200 to G.C., 2021YFC2302405 to G.C., 2022YFC2303200 to G.C. and 2022YFC2303400 to G.C.), Key Project of Tianjin Natural Science Foundation (21JCQNJC00690 to B.Z.), Elderly Health & Happiness Major Program of China Ageing Development Foundation (EHH20211002 and EHH20211001 to B.Z.), Shenzhen Bay Laboratory Startup Fund (no. 21330111 to W.T.), Shenzhen San-Ming Project for Prevention and Research on Vector-borne Diseases (SZSM202211023 to G.C.), Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Project at Southwest United Graduate School (202302AO370010 to G.C.), New Cornerstone Science Foundation through the New Cornerstone Investigator Program (to G.C.) and Xplorer Prize from the Tencent Foundation (to G.C.).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Wenchang Peng, Wanbo Tai, Bowen Li.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Academy of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Wenchang Peng, Bowen Li, Hua Wang & Bin Zheng

  2. School of Life Sciences, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Wenchang Peng & Tao Wang

  3. New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, Tsinghua University-Peking University Joint Center for Life Sciences, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Wanbo Tai, Pengyuan Dong, Chongyu Tian, Shengyong Feng & Gong Cheng

  4. Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen, China

    Wanbo Tai, Pengyuan Dong, Chongyu Tian & Gong Cheng

  5. Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Shuyue Guo & Xu Zhang

  6. School of Integrative Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China

    Long Yang

  7. Institute of Pathogenic Organisms, Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shenzhen, China

    Gong Cheng

  8. Southwest United Graduate School, Kunming, China

    Gong Cheng

  9. School of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China

    Bin Zheng

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Contributions

B.Z., G.C. and L.Y. designed and supervised the study, and wrote and revised the paper. W.P., W.T., B.L. and C.T. performed the experiments and analysed the data. H.W., S.G., X.Z. and S.F. assisted with the animal experiments. W.P., W.T., B.L., P.D. and T.W. contributed to the experimental design and the writing of the paper. All authors reviewed, critiqued and provided comments on the text of the paper.

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Correspondence to Long Yang, Gong Cheng or Bin Zheng.

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Peng, W., Tai, W., Li, B. et al. Inhalable nanocatalytic therapeutics for viral pneumonia. Nat. Mater. 24, 637–648 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-02041-5

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