Engineering efficient artificial nanozyme based on chitosan grafted Fe-doped-carbon dots for bacteria biofilm eradication

Understanding bacterial biofilms: From definition to treatment strategies

Bacterial biofilms are complex microbial communities encased in extracellular polymeric substances. Their formation is a multi-step process. Biofilms are a significant problem in treating bacterial infections and are one of the main reasons for the persistence of infections. They can exhibit increased resistance to classical antibiotics and cause disease through device-related and non-device (tissue) -associated infections, posing a severe threat to global health issues. Therefore, early detection and search for new and alternative treatments are essential for treating and suppressing biofilm-associated infections. In this paper, we systematically reviewed the formation of bacterial biofilms, associated infections, detection methods, and potential treatment strategies, aiming to provide researchers with the latest progress in the detection and treatment of bacterial biofilms.

Orthogonal light-triggered multiple effects based on photochromic nanoparticles for DNA cleavage and beyond

Efficient and spatiotemporally controllable cleavage of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is of great significance for both disease treatment (e.g. tumour, bacterial infection, etc) and molecular biology applications (e.g. gene editing). The recently developed light-induced cleavage strategy based on catalytic nanoparticles has been regarded as a promising strategy for DNA controllable cleavage. Although the regulation based on orthogonal light in biomedical applications holds more significant advantages than that based on single light, nanoparticle-mediated DNA cleavage based on orthogonal light has yet to be reported. In this article, for the first time, we demonstrated an orthogonal light-regulated nanosystem for efficient and spatiotemporal DNA cleavage. In this strategy, tungsten oxide (WO₃) nanoparticles with photochromic properties were used as nano-antennae to convert the photoenergy from the orthogonal visible light (405 nm) and near-infrared light (808 nm) into chemical energy for DNA cleavage. We verified that only the orthogonal light can trigger high cleavage efficiency on different types of DNA. Moreover, such an orthogonal light-response nano-system can not only induce significant apoptosis of tumour cells, but also effectively eliminate bacterial biofilms.

Targeted pH-responsive chitosan nanogels with Tanshinone IIA for enhancing the antibacterial/anti-biofilm efficacy

Persistent bacterial infection caused by biofilms is one of the most serious problems that threatened human health. The development of antibacterial agents remains a challenge to penetrate biofilm and effectively treat the underlying bacterial infection. In the current study, chitosan-based nanogels were developed for encapsulating the Tanshinone IIA (TA) to enhance the antibacterial and anti-biofilm efficacy against Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans). The as-prepared nanogels (TA@CS) displayed excellent encapsulation efficiency (91.41 ± 0.11 %), uniform particle sizes (393.97 ± 13.92 nm), and enhanced positive potential (42.27 ± 1.25 mV). After being coated with CS, the stability of TA under light and other harsh environments was greatly improved. In addition, TA@CS displayed pH responsiveness, allowing it to selectively release more TA in acidic conditions. Furthermore, the positively charged TA@CS were equipped to target negatively charged biofilm surfaces and efficiently penetrate through biofilm barriers, making it promising for remarkable anti-biofilm activity. More importantly, when TA was encapsulated into CS nanogels, the antibacterial activity of TA was enhanced at least 4-fold. Meanwhile, TA@CS inhibited 72 % of biofilm formation at 500 μg/mL. The results demonstrated that the nanogels constituted CS and TA had antibacterial/anti-biofilm properties with synergistic enhanced effects, which will benefit pharmaceutical, food, and other fields.

Scavenging of reactive oxygen species effectively reduces Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms through disrupting policing

Biofilm formation is likely to contribute greatly to antibiotic resistance in bacteria and therefore the efficient removal of bacterial biofilms needs addressing urgently. Here, we reported that the supplement of non-inhibitory concentration of N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), a common reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenger, can significantly reduce the biomass of mature Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms (corroborated by crystal violet assay and laser scanning confocal microscopy). 1 mM NAC increased the cheater (ΔlasR mutant) frequency to 89.4 ± 1.5% in the evolved PAO1 after the 15-day treatment. Scavenging of ROS by NAC induced the collapse of P. aeruginosa biofilms, but it did not alter quorum sensing-regulated genes expression (e.g., hcnC and cioAB) and hydrogen cyanide production. The replenishment of public good protease contributed to the recovery of biofilm biomass, indicating the role of disrupting policing in biofilm inhibition. Furthermore, 7 typical ROS scavengers (e.g., superoxide dismutase, catalase and peroxidase, etc.) also effectively inhibited mature P. aeruginosa biofilms. This study demonstrates that scavenging of ROS can promote the selective control of P. aeruginosa biofilms through policing disruption as a targeted biofilm control strategy in complex water environments.

One-pot hydrothermal synthesis of metal-doped carbon dot nanozymes using protein cages as precursors

Metal-doped carbon dots represent a new class of promising nanomaterials with enzyme-like activity, whose properties such as fluorescence properties and enzyme-like activity are determined by the precursors and the conditions used to prepare them. Nowadays, the synthesis of carbon dots using naturally occurring precursors has attracted increasing attention. Here, using metal-loaded horse spleen ferritin as a precursor, we report a facile one-pot hydrothermal strategy to synthesise metal-doped fluorescent carbon dots with enzyme-like activity. The as-prepared metal-doped carbon dots exhibit high water solubility, uniform size distribution, and good fluorescence. In particular, the Fe-doped carbon dots exhibit prominent oxidoreductase catalytic activities, including peroxidase-like, oxidase-like, catalase-like, and superoxide dismutase-like activities. This study provides a green synthetic strategy for developing metal-doped carbon dots with enzymatic catalytic activity.

Antibacterial Carbon Dots-Based Composites

The emergence and global spread of bacterial resistance to conventionally used antibiotics have highlighted the urgent need for new antimicrobial agents that might replace antibiotics. Currently, nanomaterials hold considerable promise as antimicrobial agents in anti-inflammatory therapy. Due to their distinctive functional physicochemical characteristics and exceptional biocompatibility, carbon dots (CDs)-based composites have attracted a lot of attention in the context of these antimicrobial nanomaterials. Here, a thorough assessment of current developments in the field of antimicrobial CDs-based composites is provided, starting with a brief explanation of the general synthesis procedures, categorization, and physicochemical characteristics of CDs-based composites. The many processes driving the antibacterial action of these composites are then thoroughly described, including physical destruction, oxidative stress, and the incorporation of antimicrobial agents. Finally, the obstacles that CDs-based composites now suffer in combating infectious diseases are outlined and investigated, along with the potential applications of antimicrobial CDs-based composites.

Smart Biomimetic Nanozymes for Precise Molecular Imaging: Application and Challenges

New nanotechnologies for imaging molecules are widely being applied to visualize the expression of specific molecules (e.g., ions, biomarkers) for disease diagnosis. Among various nanoplatforms, nanozymes, which exhibit enzyme-like catalytic activities in vivo, have gained tremendously increasing attention in molecular imaging due to their unique properties such as diverse enzyme-mimicking activities, excellent biocompatibility, ease of surface tenability, and low cost. In addition, by integrating different nanoparticles with superparamagnetic, photoacoustic, fluorescence, and photothermal properties, the nanoenzymes are able to increase the imaging sensitivity and accuracy for better understanding the complexity and the biological process of disease. Moreover, these functions encourage the utilization of nanozymes as therapeutic agents to assist in treatment. In this review, we focus on the applications of nanozymes in molecular imaging and discuss the use of peroxidase (POD), oxidase (OXD), catalase (CAT), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) with different imaging modalities. Further, the applications of nanozymes for cancer treatment, bacterial infection, and inflammation image-guided therapy are discussed. Overall, this review aims to provide a complete reference for research in the interdisciplinary fields of nanotechnology and molecular imaging to promote the advancement and clinical translation of novel biomimetic nanozymes.

Metal-Based Nanozymes with Multienzyme-Like Activities as Therapeutic Candidates: Applications, Mechanisms, and Optimization Strategy

Most nanozymes in development for medical applications only exhibit single-enzyme-like activity, and are thus limited by insufficient catalytic activity and dysfunctionality in complex pathological microenvironments. To overcome the impediments of limited substrate availabilities and concentrations, some metal-based nanozymes may mimic two or more activities of natural enzymes to catalyze cascade reactions or to catalyze multiple substrates simultaneously, thereby amplifying catalysis. Metal-based nanozymes with multienzyme-like activities (MNMs) may adapt to dissimilar catalytic conditions to exert different enzyme-like effects. These multienzyme-like activities can synergize to realize "self-provision of the substrate," in which upstream catalysts produce substrates for downstream catalytic reactions to overcome the limitation of insufficient substrates in the microenvironment. Consequently, MNMs exert more potent antitumor, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory effects in preclinical models. This review summarizes the cellular effects and underlying mechanisms of MNMs. Their potential medical utility and optimization strategy from the perspective of clinical requirements are also discussed, with the aim to provide a theoretical reference for the design, development, and therapeutic application of their catalytic effects.

Engineering an Enzymatic Cascade Catalytic Smartphone-Based Sensor for Onsite Visual Ratiometric Fluorescence-Colorimetric Dual-Mode Detection of Methyl Mercaptan

Precise and reliable onsite detection of methyl mercaptan (CH₃SH) is of great significance for environmental surveillance. Here, we synthesized a novel blue fluorescence nanozyme CeO₂@TPE with high peroxidase-like activity by employing aggregation-induced emission (AIE) tetraphenylethene (TPE) to embed into hollow CeO₂ nanospheres. In the presence of ethanol oxidase (AOX) and o-phenylenediamine (OPD), we engineered an enzymatic cascade activation ratiometric fluorescence-colorimetric dual-mode system AOX/CeO₂@TPE + OPD toward CH₃SH. In this design, CH₃SH initiated AOX catalytic activity to convert it into H₂O₂ for activating the peroxidase-like activity of CeO₂@TPE, producing ^•OH for oxidizing the naked-eye colorless OPD into deep yellow 2,3-diaminophenazine (DAP) with an absorption enhancement at ∼425 nm, companied by a new emission peak at ∼550 nm to match with the intrinsic emission at ∼441 nm for observing ratiometric fluorescence response, enabling a ratiometric fluorescence-colorimetric dual-mode analysis. Interestingly, both the ratiometric fluorescence and colorimetric signals could be gathered for being converted into the hue parameter on a smartphone-based sensor, achieving the onsite visual fluorescence-colorimetric dual-mode detection of CH₃SH in real environmental media with acceptable results. This study gave a novel insight into designing target-responsive enzymatic cascade activation system-based efficient and reliable dual-mode point-of-care sensors for safeguarding environmental health.

Antibacterial and antibiofilm mechanisms of carbon dots: a review

Due to the increasing bacterial resistance to conventional antibiotics, developing safe and effective approaches to combat infections caused by bacteria and biofilms has become an urgent clinical problem. Recently, carbon dots (CDs) have received great attention as a promising alternative to conventional antimicrobial agents due to their excellent antimicrobial efficacy and biocompatibility. Although CDs have been widely used in the field of antibacterial applications, their antibacterial and antibiofilm mechanisms have not been systematically discussed. This review provides a systematic overview on the complicated mechanisms of antibacterial and antibiofilm CDs based on recent development.

Emerging and Versatile Platforms of Metal-Ion-Doped Carbon Dots for Biosensing, Bioimaging, and Disease Therapy

Metal ions possess abundant electrons and unoccupied orbitals, as well as large atomic radii, whose doping into carbon dots (CDs) is a facile strategy to endow CDs with additional physicochemical characteristics. After being doped with metal ions, CDs reveal obvious changes in their optical, electronic, and magnetic properties by adjustments to their electron density distribution and the energy gaps, leading them to be promising and competitive candidates as labeling probes, imaging agents, catalysts, nanodrugs, and so on. In this review, we summarize the fabrication methods of metal-ion-doped CDs (M-CDs), and highlight their biological applications including biosensing, bioimaging, tumor therapy, and anti-microbial treatment. Finally, the challenging future perspectives of M-CDs are analyzed. We hope this review will provide inspiration for further development of M-CDs in various biological aspects, and help readers who are interested in M-CDs and their biological applications.

Chitosan-Based Carbon Dots with Applied Aspects: New Frontiers of International Interest in a Material of Marine Origin

Carbon dots (CDs) have attracted significant research attention worldwide due to their unique properties and advantageous attributes, such as superior optical properties, biocompatibility, easy surface functionalization, and more. Moreover, biomass-derived CDs have attracted much attention because of their additional advantages related to more environmentally friendly and lower-cost synthesis. In this respect, chitosan has been recently explored for the preparation of CDs, which in comparison to other natural precursors exhibited additional advantages. Beyond the benefits related to the eco-friendly and abundant nature of chitosan, using it as a nanomaterial precursor offers additional benefits in terms of structure, morphology, and dopant elements. Furthermore, the high content of nitrogen in chitosan allows it to be used as a single carbon and nitrogen precursor for the preparation of N-doped CDs, significantly improving their fluorescent properties and, therefore, their performances. This review addresses the most recent advances in chitosan-based CDs with a special focus on synthesis methods, enhanced properties, and their applications in different fields, including biomedicine, the environment, and food packaging. Finally, this work also addresses the key challenges to be overcome to propose future perspectives and research to unlock their great potential for practical applications.

Acidity-Activatable Nanoparticles with Glucose Oxidase-Enhanced Photoacoustic Imaging and Photothermal Effect, and Macrophage-Related Immunomodulation for Synergistic Treatment of Biofilm Infection

The pH-responsive theragnostics exhibit great potential for precision diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Herein, acidity-activatable nanoparticles of GB@P based on glucose oxidase (GO) and polyaniline are developed for treatment of biofilm infection. Catalyzed by GO, GB@P triggers the conversion of glucose into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide (H₂ O₂ ), enabling an acidic microenvironment-activated simultaneously enhanced photothermal (PT) effect/amplified photoacoustic imaging (PAI). The synergistic effects of the enhanced PT efficacy of GB@P and H₂ O₂ accelerate biofilm eradication because the penetration of H₂ O₂ into biofilm improves the bacterial sensitivity to heat, and the enhanced PT effect destroys the expressions of extracellular DNA and genomic DNA, resulting in biofilm destruction and bacterial death. Importantly, GB@P facilitates the polarization of proinflammatory M1 macrophages that initiates macrophage-related immunity, which enhances the phagocytosis of macrophages and secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, leading to a sustained bactericidal effect and biofilm eradication by the innate immunomodulatory effect. Accordingly, the nanoplatform of GB@P exhibits the synergistic effects on the biofilm eradication and bacterial residuals clearance through a combination of the enhanced PT effect with immunomodulation. This study provides a promising nanoplatform with enhanced PT efficacy and amplified PAI for diagnosis and treatment of biofilm infection.

Prospects for the next generation of artificial enzymes for ensuring the quality of chilled meat: Opportunities and challenges

As living standards rise, the demand for high-quality chilled meat among consumers also grows. Researchers and enterprises have been interested in ensuring the quality of chilled meat in all links of the downstream industry. Nanozyme has shown the potential to address the aforementioned requirements. Reasons and approaches for the application of nanozymes in the freshness assessment or shelf life extension of chilled meat were discussed. The challenges for applying these nanozymes to ensure the quality of chilled meat were also summarized. Finally, this review examined the safety, regulatory status, and consumer attitudes toward nanozymes. This review revealed that the freshness assessment of chilled meat is closely related to mimicking the enzyme activities of nanozymes, whereas the shelf life changes of chilled meat are mostly dependent on the photothermal activities and pseudophotodynamic activities of nanozymes. In contrast, studies regarding the shelf life of chilled meat are more challenging to develop, as excessive heat or reactive oxygen species impair its quality. Notably, meat contains a complex matrix composition that may interact with the nanozyme, reducing its effectiveness. Nanopollution and mass manufacturing are additional obstacles that must be overcome. Therefore, it is vital to choose suitable approaches to ensure meat quality. Furthermore, the safety of nanozymes in meat applications still needs careful consideration owing to their widespread usage.

Polydopamine-based nanozyme with dual-recognition strategy-driven fluorescence-colorimetric dual-mode platform for Listeria monocytogenes detection

Development of a simple and efficient dual-mode analytical technique with the built-in cross reference correction feature is benefit to achieve the highly accurate detection of the target pollutants and avoid the false-positive outputs in environmental media. Here, we synthesized a Fe-doped polydopamine (Fe@PDA)-based nanozyme with prominent peroxide-mimetic enzyme activity and high fluorescence emission ability. On this basis, we designed a dual-recognition strategy-driven fluorescence-colorimetric dual-mode detection platform, consisting of Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) recognition aptamer-modified Fe@PDA (apt/Fe@PDA) and vancomycin-functionalized Fe₃O₄ (van/Fe₃O₄), for L. monocytogenes. Owing to van/Fe₃O₄-powered magnetic separation, there was a L. monocytogenes concentration-dependent fluorescence enhancement of apt/Fe@PDA for performing fluorescence assay in the precipitate. In this case, the prominent peroxide-mimetic enzyme activity of the residual apt/Fe@PDA in the precipitation could catalyze H₂O₂ to further oxidate colorless 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) into blue oxTMB, which displayed a L. monocytogenes concentration-dependent absorbance enhancement for carrying out colorimetric assay as well. As a result, a fluorescence-colorimetric dual-mode analytical platform was proposed to successfully detect the residual L. monocytogenes in real environmental media with acceptable results. This work showed the great prospects by integrating dual-recognition strategy into fluorescence nanozyme to develop efficient and reliable dual-mode analytical platforms for safeguarding environmental health.

Recent progress in single-atom nanozymes research

Single-atom nanozyme (SAzyme) is the hot topic of the current nanozyme research. Its intrinsic properties, such as high activity, stability, and low cost, present great substitutes to natural enzymes. Moreover, its fundamental characteristics, i.e., maximized atom utilizations and well-defined geometric and electronic structures, lead to higher catalytic activities and specificity than traditional nanozymes. SAzymes have been applied in many biomedical areas, such as anti-tumor therapy, biosensing, antibiosis, and anti-oxidation therapy. Here, we will discuss a series of representative examples of SAzymes categorized by their biomedical applications in this review. In the end, we will address the future opportunities and challenges SAzymes facing in their designs and applications.