Peroxisome inspired hybrid enzyme nanogels for chemodynamic and photodynamic therapy

Peroxisome, a special cytoplasmic organelle, possesses one or more kinds of oxidases for hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) production and catalase for H 2 O 2 degradation, which serves as an intracellular H 2 O 2 regulator to degrade toxic peroxides to water. Inspired by this biochemical pathway, we demonstrate the reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced tumor therapy by integrating lactate oxidase (LOx) and catalase (CAT) into Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticle/indocyanine green (ICG) co-loaded hybrid nanogels (designated as FIGs-LC). Based on the O 2 redistribution and H 2 O 2 activation by cascading LOx and CAT catalytic metabolic regulation, hydroxyl radical (·OH) and singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) production can be modulated for glutathione (GSH)-activated chemodynamic therapy (CDT) and NIR-triggered photodynamic therapy (PDT), by manipulating the ratio of LOx and CAT to catalyze endogenous lactate to produce H 2 O 2 and further cascade decomposing H 2 O 2 into O 2 . The regulation reactions of FIGs-LC significantly elevate the intracellular ROS level and cause fatal damage to cancer cells inducing the effective inhibition of tumor growth. Such enzyme complex loaded hybrid nanogel present potential for biomedical ROS regulation, especially for the tumors with different redox state, size, and subcutaneous depth. The control of reactive oxygen species in cancer cells is an attractive approach for anticancer applications. Here, the authors create a peroxisome inspired lactate oxidase and catalase loaded hydrogel with iron nanoparticles and NIR photosensitizer for glutathione activated chemodynamic and photodynamic therapy.