Nanocatalytic Approaches in Tumor Therapy

Nanocatalytic tumour therapy exploits engineered nanomaterials with enzyme-like activity to trigger chemical reactions within the tumour microenvironment, producing cytotoxic species such as reactive oxygen species (ROS). These nanozymes are designed to respond to intrinsic factors—acidity, elevated hydrogen peroxide levels or hypoxia—to drive Fenton or cascade reactions that convert benign substrates into hydroxyl radicals or singlet oxygen. By tailoring size, composition and surface functionality, researchers have achieved targeted accumulation, minimised off-target effects and integrated multimodal functions including imaging, photothermal conversion and drug release. Such approaches offer precision in overcoming tumour hypoxia, enhancing treatment selectivity and enabling combination therapies that merge chemodynamic, photodynamic and photothermal modalities. The global significance of this strategy lies in its adaptability across diverse cancer types and its potential to integrate with existing clinical protocols, paving the way for next-generation oncological interventions.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have introduced biomimetic nanoflowers formed by self-assembly of dual nanozyme components, yielding a cascade catalyst that generates ROS under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions without external triggers. A separate work describes a self-assembled single-atom ruthenium catalyst embedded in a metal–organic framework, which decomposes endogenous hydrogen peroxide to relieve hypoxia and enhance photodynamic therapy. More recently, an interfacial-confined coordination strategy produced iron single-atom sites anchored on carbon dots within a mesoporous silica nanoreactor, delivering efficient photothermal conversion and catalytic ROS generation, with enhanced electron density and tunable metal components for flexible tumour ablation strategies.

Nanocatalytic Approaches in Tumor Therapy publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in nanocatalytic approaches in tumor therapy across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Nanozyme: Nanomaterial that mimics the catalytic activity of natural enzymes to drive chemical reactions in biological environments.

Fenton reaction: Transition-metal-catalysed conversion of hydrogen peroxide into highly reactive hydroxyl radicals for oxidative damage.

Tumour microenvironment (TME): The complex milieu of cellular, chemical and physical factors surrounding and supporting a tumour.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS): Chemically reactive molecules derived from oxygen that induce oxidative stress and cell death.

Single-atom catalyst: Catalyst in which individual metal atoms are dispersed on a support matrix to maximise atomic efficiency and activity.

Chemodynamic therapy (CDT): Treatment modality relying on in situ chemical reactions to generate cytotoxic species within tumours.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT): Technique using photosensitisers activated by light to produce ROS for selective tumour ablation.

References

1. Biomimetic nanoflowers by self-assembly of nanozymes to induce intracellular oxidative damage against hypoxic tumors. Nature Communications (2018).
2. Self-assembled single-atom nanozyme for enhanced photodynamic therapy treatment of tumor. Nature Communications (2020).
3. Interfacial-confined coordination to single-atom nanotherapeutics. Nature Communications (2022).
4. Recent advances in multi‐metallic‐based nanozymes for enhanced catalytic cancer therapy. BMEMat (2023).
5. Catalytic imaging-guided cancer therapy using non-coordinated and coordinated nanozymes. Coordination Chemistry Reviews (2024).
6. Drug‐Primed Self‐Assembly of Platinum‐Single‐Atom Nanozyme to Regulate Cellular Redox Homeostasis Against Cancer. Advanced Science (2023).