Catalytic nanozymes for central nervous system disease

The central nervous system (CNS) is a centralized control system for the human body, and minor lesions or injuries will cause inestimable consequences. Due to high oxygen consumption and lipid-rich content, lots of CNS diseases are closely related to oxidative stress injury, which produces harmful reactive nitrogen and oxygen species such as peroxide and superoxide, triggering a serial of biochemical reaction and neuroinflammation. Currently, existing redox molecules show highly bioactive property but suffer from instability and high production costs, limiting clinical application for neurological diseases. Compared with natural enzyme, artificial enzymes show high stability, long-lasting catalytic activity, and versatile enzyme-like properties. By properly design at atomic level, catalytic activity and selectivity of artificial enzymes can be modulated for neuroinflammation treatments. In the current review, we focus on the latest developments of metal, metal oxide, and carbon-based nanozymes and review their oxidoreductase activity and catalytic mechanism. Especially, the recent reported single-atom nanozyme and corresponding unique spatial coordination was summarized. Meanwhile, we enumerate the recent important progress in treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI), stroke, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) via using redox artificial enzyme. This catalytic nanozyme shows promising prospects in understanding the pathophysiology of CNS diseases as well as building the bridge between redox chemistry and neuroinflammation. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The central nervous system is crucial for human health, and the treatment of CNS diseases is essential. Artificial enzymes offer high stability and catalytic activity, showing great potential for treating neuroinflammation and other disorders.