The Fe-N-C Nanozyme with Both Accelerated and Inhibited Bio-catalytic Activities Capable of Accessing Drug-Drug Interactions

Emerging as a cost-effective and robust enzyme mimic, nanozymes have drawn increasing attention with broad applications ranging from cancer therapy to biosensing. Developing nanozymes with both accelerated and inhibited biocatalytic properties in a biological context is intriguing to peruse more advanced functions of natural enzymes, but remains challenging, because most nanozymes are lack of enzyme-like molecular structures. By re-visiting and engineering the well-known Fe-N-C electrocatalyst that has a heme-like Fe-N-x, active sites, herein, it is reported that Fe-N-C could not only catalyze drug metabolization but also had inhibition behaviors similar to cytochrome P450 (CYP), endowing it a potential replacement of CYP for preliminary evaluation of massive potential chemicals, drug dosing guide, and outcome prediction. In addition, in contrast to electrocatalysts, the highly graphitic framework of Fe-N-C may not be obligatory for a competitive CYP-like activity.