The cascade reaction was illustrated schematically in
Fig. 1a. The Au NPs acted as a GOx-like enzyme, decomposing glucose into H
2O
2, while Cu-TCPP(Fe) were used as a POD-like enzyme to further decompose it to
•OH. The TMB chromogenic method was employed to detect the
•OH producing ability of Cu-TCPP(Fe), Cu-TCPP(Fe)@Au and Cu-TCPP(Fe)@Au@BSA (
Fig. 1b). The addition of the nanozymes produced an absorption peak at 652 nm, accompanied by a color change from colorless to blue, indicating their capability to catalyze H
2O
2. Additionally, the absorption peaks increased after loading with Au NPs, attributed to the hybridization of MOF with metal nanoparticles, imparting a synergistic catalytic effect and enhancing POD-like activity [
48]. Moreover, the catalytic activity of Cu-TCPP(Fe)@Au@BSA was 2.21 and 1.77 times higher than that of Cu-TCPP(Fe) and Cu-TCPP(Fe)@Au, respectively. The alteration in absorbance at 652 nm of Cu-TCPP(Fe)@Au@BSA catalyzed H
2O
2 with varying concentrations was also monitored in real-time for the initial ten minutes. As illustrated in
Fig. 1c, the concentration increased, and the absorbance continued to rise over time. To quantify the POD-like enzyme activity, the steady-state kinetics of its various catalytic substrates were investigated. The Michaelis-Menten constant (
Km) and the maximum initial velocity (
Vmax) were determined by modifying the concentrations of H
2O
2 and TMB using the Michaelis-Menten kinetics and Lineweaver-Burk equations.
Figs. 1d and
e demonstrated the variation in the reaction rate with H
2O
2 concentration or TMB concentration (Fig. S20 in Supporting information), revealing an increase in the reaction rate with substrate concentration. The inverse of the substrate concentration correlated linearly with the inverse of the initial rate. The
Km of H
2O
2 and TMB were calculated to be 0.74 and 0.34 mmol/L. They were 5 and 1.28 times lower than HRP, respectively, and lower than that of most previously developed natural enzymes, metal-organic frameworks, iron-based nanozymes,
etc., indicating the good affinity for different substrates (Fig. S21 in Supporting information). After centrifuging the supernatant, HRP and TMB were added to generate color, as shown in
Fig. 1f. There was poor GOx-like activity in the presence of Cu-TCPP(Fe)@Au, but a 28% increased absorption peak at 652 nm with a darker color, potentially due to BSA modification and chemical dispersion of the nanosheets, leading to a reduced particle size of the Au NPs and an enhancement of catalytic activity. The H
2O
2 product resulting from the glucose decomposition by Cu-TCPP(Fe)@Au@BSA was detected through KMnO
4 colorimetry. The generation of the product was confirmed by the fading of KMnO
4 and the disappearance of the UV absorption peaks (
Fig. 1g).
Fig. 1h depicted an increase in absorption peaks with varying nanozyme concentration levels in the cascade reaction, indicating an accompanying increase in concentration. Moreover, the catalytic activity of Cu-TCPP(Fe)@Au@BSA nanosheets towards H
2O
2 and glucose was strongly influenced by pH, exhibiting superior catalytic performance in an acidic rather than a neutral setting (Fig. S22 in Supporting information). The pH of the mixture solution of Cu-TCPP(Fe)@Au@BSA and glucose decreased around 4.11 after the reaction for 24 h, referring to the produce of gluconic acid. Given the abundance of glucose of diabetic wounds, the devised nanozymes may utilize glucose and instigate a cascade reaction stimulating
•OH production, thereby conferring an effective therapeutic effect. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy was utilized to identify free radicals. Fig. S23 (Supporting information) indicated that catalyzing H
2O
2 produced a distinct splitting peak with a characteristic signal of 1:2:2:1, attributed to the presence of
•OH. Subsequently, incubation with glucose resulted in characteristic signal peaks of H
2O
2 and
•OH due to the cascade reaction.