Enhancing Tumor Catalytic Therapy by Co-Catalysis

Fenton reactions have been recently applied in tumor catalytic therapy, whose efficacy suffers from the unsatisfactory reaction kinetics of Fe3+ to Fe2+ conversion. Here we introduce a co-catalytic concept in tumor catalytic therapy by using a two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanosheet atomically dispersed with Fe species. The single-atom Fe species act as active sites for triggering Fenton reactions, while the abundant sulfur vacancies generated on the nanosheet favor electron capture by hydrogen peroxide for promoting hydroxyl radical production. Moreover, the 2D MoS2 support also acts as a co-catalyst to accelerate the conversion of Fe3+ to Fe2+ by the oxidation of active Mo4+ sites to Mo6+, thereby promoting the whole catalytic process. The 2D nanocatalyst exhibits a desirable catalytic performance, as well as a significantly enhanced anticancer efficacy both in vitro and in vivo, which indicates the feasibility for applying such a co-catalytic concept in tumor therapy.

Automated summary

In this study, a co-catalytic concept was introduced to enhance the efficacy of Fenton reactions in tumor catalytic therapy by dispersing single-atom iron species on two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide nanosheets. The iron species act as active sites for triggering the Fenton reactions, while the sulfur vacancies on the nanosheets promote hydroxyl radical production. Moreover, the nanosheets also serve as a co-catalyst to accelerate the conversion of iron ions and promote the overall catalytic process. The study demonstrates the feasibility of applying this co-catalytic concept to improve anticancer efficacy both in vitro and in vivo.