Shanxi Medical University Licenses Novel Metal-Sulfur Coordinated Single-Atom Nanozyme Patent for RMB 520,000
Recently, Shanxi Medical University plans to“Preparation Method and Application of Metal-Sulfur Coordinated Single-Atom Nanozymes”Grant an exclusive license to the industry partner, with a licensing fee ofRMB 520,000.00. This patent is held byZhang Xinyu, Wu Zhifang, Li Sijinawaiting development by researchers.
Image from the official website of Shanxi Medical University
The core of this patent lies in the application ofSynthetic Biology ApproachesPreparationSingle-Atom Nanozyme Materials with Specific Metal–Sulfur Coordination PatternsThis innovation overcomes the technical limitations of traditional single-atom nanozymes, which predominantly rely on metal-nitrogen coordination. Pioneeringly, it uses metallothionein-expressing cells (preferably Escherichia coli) as templates and combines biosynthesis with high-temperature calcination to achieve efficient loading of metal-sulfur coordinated single atoms. This approach effectively addresses industry pain points associated with conventional preparation methods, such as cumbersome processes, susceptibility to atomic aggregation, and difficulties in scalable production. Furthermore, this technology allows for flexible modulation of nanozyme activity by adjusting the type and loading amount of metal ions. It features green and low-cost production, strong stability, and excellent environmental tolerance, laying a core foundation for the industrial application of single-atom nanozymes.
in fields such as biomedicine and environmental governanceWhether for clinical interventions in conditions such as bacterial infections and tumor lesions, or for technical implementations in scenarios like organic pollutant degradation and wastewater purification, there is a heavy reliance on enzymatic preparations and catalytic materials with excellent catalytic activity and strong environmental tolerance. However, the existing solutions for these conditions and problems still suffer from numerous technical shortcomings, thereby giving rise to an urgent clinical and industrial demand for novel biomimetic catalytic materials.
Bacterial infections are common clinical conditions, and their treatment has long relied on antibiotics. However, the misuse of antibiotics has led to the continuous emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria, resulting in a sustained decline in the efficacy of traditional antimicrobial regimens. Furthermore, some antimicrobial agents suffer from poor targeting and adverse effects on normal tissues. On the other hand, the treatment of tumors faces challenges such as the high toxicity of chemotherapeutic drugs, low catalytic efficiency of photothermal therapy materials, and suboptimal synergistic therapeutic effects. Therefore, there is an urgent market need for multifunctional therapeutic materials that combine high-efficiency catalytic and photothermal properties.
In the fields of detection and catalysis,Natural EnzymesIt serves as a core reagent for various biochemical reactions and clinical assays. However, its inherent structural fragility makes it prone to inactivation under conditions such as high temperature, high salinity, and extreme pH levels. This lack of stability hinders its ability to meet the demands of complex clinical testing and industrial catalysis scenarios, thereby limiting its application in non-laboratory environments such as point-of-care testing and industrial production.
Currently, alternative solutions to the aforementioned issues includeMetal-Nitrogen Coordinated Single-Atom NanozymesPrimarily. Although this class of artificial biomimetic enzymes has overcome the poor stability of natural enzymes and demonstrated certain application potential in fields such as biomedicine and environmental monitoring, their coordination structures suffer from inherent technical limitations. While the coordination mode maintains the basic stability of the materials, it restricts the further development of enzymatic activity, resulting in limited catalytic efficiency that fails to meet the clinical and industrial demand for high-activity enzyme-mimicking agents.
Meanwhile, the preparation of traditional single-atom nanozymes faces bottlenecks in scalability: most methods require customized support carriers. These carriers are only suitable for small-scale laboratory preparations, involving cumbersome processes and difficult operations, while being prone to metal atom aggregation, which hinders efficient metal-sulfur coordination. Consequently, they cannot achieve industrial mass production or flexibly regulate enzyme activity to suit different clinical and industrial scenarios.
Furthermore,In the Field of Environmental Governance, the degradation of organic pollutants, removal of antibiotic resistance genes, and sterilization and purification of wastewater impose stringent requirements on the activity, stability, and environmental tolerance of catalytic materials. Traditional catalytic materials often have shortcomings: they either exhibit low catalytic efficiency and incomplete degradation, or are prone to deactivation due to environmental influences, making it difficult to balance high efficiency with stability.
In summary, there is an urgent need in both clinical and industrial sectors for a novel class of biomimetic nanozyme materials that combine high catalytic activity, robust environmental tolerance, simple fabrication processes, and scalability. Such materials must overcome current bottlenecks in coordination structures and manufacturing techniques, while enabling flexible modulation of catalytic activity to meet the diverse application requirements in antibacterial therapy, antitumor treatment, biosensing, and catalysis.
The preparation technology for this metal-sulfur coordinated single-atom nanozyme has achieved multiple academic and technical breakthroughs in terms of coordination systems, fabrication processes, and performance regulation. Its core innovation lies inBreaking through the inherent system of traditional metal-nitrogen coordination in single-atom nanozymes, and drawing on the natural mechanism of iron-sulfur cluster proteases in vivo, to construct single-atom active centers with metal-sulfur coordination—It not only preserves the structural stability of single-atom nanozymes but also expands the scope for enhancing enzymatic activity, significantly improving catalytic efficiency and achieving a major innovation in the coordination structure design of biomimetic catalytic materials.
In terms of the preparation process,This technology innovatively usesMetallothionein-Expressing CellsBy leveraging natural templates and integrating synthetic biology with material calcination technology, we have achieved efficient loading of metal–sulfur coordinated single atoms through a standardized process encompassing cell culture, protein induction, metal ion binding, and immobilized calcination. This approach eliminates the need for pre-prepared specialized support carriers, fundamentally addressing the technical challenges inherent in traditional methods, such as metal atom aggregation, low coordination efficiency, and difficulties in scalable production. Furthermore, the use of readily accessible expression cells like Escherichia coli, coupled with well-established culture systems, ensures that the preparation process is both environmentally friendly and cost-effective, aligning with the principles of green chemistry.
In terms of performance regulationThis technology enables precise modulation of nanozyme catalytic activity through the flexible selection of various metal ions, such as V³⁺, Fe²⁺, and Au³⁺, or by regulating the combination types and loading concentrations of these metal ions. Meanwhile, the prepared nanozymes exhibit excellent peroxidase-like and catalase-like activities, along with photothermal properties. A multi-enzyme cascade system can be constructed through cascade modification, allowing the nanozymes to maintain stable catalytic performance under extreme conditions of temperature, salinity, and pH. Their environmental tolerance is significantly superior to that of natural enzymes and traditional nanozyme materials. Furthermore, this material can catalyze the generation of abundant reactive oxygen species (ROS) and exert a synergistic effect in combination with the photothermal effect, providing a new material foundation for multi-mechanistic, high-efficiency biomedical interventions.
From the Perspective of Market Application and Industrial Development, leveraging the dual advantages of structure and performance, this technology has inBiomedicine, Industrial Catalysis, Environmental RemediationThree Core Fields Demonstrate Broad Prospects for Industrialization. Their scalable production characteristics and flexible performance tunability can meet the customized needs of different application scenarios, providing high-value-added new material support for related industries.
Currently, competing products related to single-atom nanozymes on the market are primarilyMetal–Nitrogen Coordinated Single-Atom Nanozymes, Conventional Metal Oxide Nanozymes, and Natural Enzyme-Modified FormulationsAs the core, multiple commercialized products have been launched and established their respective market positions.
Nanoscale Iron Oxide (Fe₃O₄) Wastewater Purification CatalystIt is a core product of traditional metal oxide nanozymes, with nanoscale iron oxide as the catalytically active core component. It represents the mainstream application category of metal oxide nanozymes in the field of environmental remediation and is primarily used forIndustrial Wastewater Treatment and Municipal Sewage PurificationTwo Core Scenarios.
Leveraging mature physical and chemical synthesis processes, this catalyst enables scalable production with significant cost advantages. It mimics the catalytic properties of natural enzymes, exerting enzyme-like catalytic effects during water purification to achieve a certain degree of degradation and removal of conventional organic pollutants and select heavy metal ions in wastewater. Owing to its mature preparation technology and adaptability to diverse application scenarios, this catalyst has become a mass-producible nanozyme catalytic material for wastewater treatment in China. It is widely applied in wastewater treatment processes at small and medium-sized chemical manufacturing enterprises and in routine purification workflows at municipal wastewater treatment plants, establishing a stable application framework for conventional water purification scenarios.
Cerium Oxide (CeO₂)-Based Superoxide Dismutase ReagentsIt is a representative product of traditional metal oxide nanozymes and a typical application achievement of this class of nanozymes in the field of biosensing. It usesCerium Oxide NanoparticlesAs the core catalytically active ingredient, it achieves specific detection and quantitative analysis of reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in biological samples by mimicking the spatial structure and catalytic mechanism of natural superoxide dismutase (SOD), serving as a critical reagent for the assessment of ROS-related indicators in the field of in vitro diagnostics.
This product adopts a sales model bundled with large-scale fully automated biochemistry analyzers in its market strategy, precisely targeting the niche segment of in vitro diagnostics. It is primarily applied in standardized testing scenarios such as hospital clinical laboratories at all levels and professional third-party medical testing laboratories. Leveraging its user-friendly operation, reliable accuracy of test results, and high compatibility with mainstream diagnostic equipment, the product has gained certain market recognition in the specialized field of reactive oxygen species (ROS) detection, becoming one of the most widely used commercial nanozyme reagents in this testing domain.