Janus Nanozyme With Programmable Catalytic Switching for Adaptive Therapy of Diabetic Wounds.

Wei, Xuelian; Gu, Zhengxiang; Luan, Yange; Wang, Yongchao; Li, Yinggang; Wei, Zengxi; Jiang, Dan; Ye, Feng et al. · Adv Mater · 2026

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

Diabetic wound healing requires dynamic bidirectional regulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Herein, guided by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we propose a programmable strategy to engineer catalytic pathways via an intimate heterointerface in Janus-structured Cu-Ag nanoparticles (CuAg-J). Theoretical simulations reveal that the unique Cu-Ag heterointerface induces a charge transfer to oxygen intermediates, enabling spontaneous formation of reactive species and pH‑switchable catalytic activity. Under acidic conditions, CuAg-J exhibits peroxidase (POD)-like activity (K<sub>m</sub> = 0.19 mM, V<sub>max</sub> = 0.38 µM/s) for antibacterial ROS generation. Under neutral conditions, it displays superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like and catalase (CAT)-like activities (K<sub>m</sub> = 9.48 mM, V<sub>max</sub> = 6.88 µM/s) for ROS scavenging and oxygen production. In an infected diabetic wound model, this bidirectional ROS regulation effectively breaks the oxidative stress-hypoxia-inflammation vicious cycle, significantly accelerating healing and achieving 92.04% wound closure by Day 14. This study not only presents a high-performance nanozyme but also provides a new design rationale for engineering intelligent catalytic materials capable of autonomous function switching in response to dynamic microenvironmental conditions.