In
the present work, cytidine 5′-monophosphate capped gold
nanoclusters (AuNCs@CMP) are reported as a catalyst for redox reactions,
which show both oxidase- and excellent peroxidase-like activity. When
employing 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB)
as a substrate in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), the maximum velocity (V
max) was 175 × 10–8 M s–1
in vitro. Besides, the AuNCs@CMP exhibited high catalytic
activity for reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation with H2O2. Particularly, they also displayed excellent catalytic
activity for ROS generation in tumor cells, being activated and promoted
by the tumor microenvironment (TME). Consequently, the AuNCs@CMP show
an excellent antitumor effect on HeLa and SW480 cells as assayed by
flow cytometry. The antitumor mechanism of AuNCs@CMP was attributed
to the high ROS generation based on the specific environments of the
TME. Therefore, the present study provides TME-adaptive AuNCs@CMP
with excellent mimetic peroxidase activity, producing significant
ROS to kill the tumor cells in TME.
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