Nanozyme: A new Approach for Anti-microbial Infections

Abstract

Bacteria and viruses have always posed a threat to human health. Most impressively, SARS-CoV-2 has been raging around the world for almost three years, causing huge loss to human health. Facing increasing challenges of drugresistance and poor treatment efficacy, new solutions are urgently needed to combat pathogenic microorganisms. Recently, nanozymes with intrinsic enzyme-like activities have emerged as a promising new type of "antibiotics".Nanozymes exhibit superior antibacterial and antiviral activities under physiological conditions by efficiently catalyzing generation of a large number of reactive oxygen species. Moreover, enhanced therapeutic effects are achieved in nanozyme-based therapy aided by the unique physicochemical properties of nanomaterials such as photothermal and photodynamic effects. This paper reviews the latest research progress in the field of anti-microbial nanozymes, systematically summarizes and analyzes the principles of nanozymes in the treatment of bacteria and viruses from a mechanistic point of view. An outlook on the future direction and the challenges of new anti-microbial infection nanomaterials are proposed to provide inspiration for developing next generation anti-microbial nanozymes.