Nanozymes: from enzyme-mimicking activities to applications in advanced drug delivery

Nanozymes represent a class of functional nanomaterials that exhibit catalytic or enzyme-like activities and imaging capabilities, making them potential candidates for addressing biomedical challenges in diagnostics, therapeutics, and potential disease prevention. Moreover, their unique advantages, including stability under harsh physiological conditions, tunable catalytic behaviors, and facile surface modification, have established nanozymes as promising platforms for drug delivery, capable of precise payload loading, targeted release, and stimuli-responsive activation. Notably, their inherent enzyme-mimicking characteristics and imaging properties enable the integration of diagnostic and therapeutic functions within a single vector. This review systematically examines the catalytic mechanisms and property modulation strategies of nanozymes, while highlighting their significant advantages and recent breakthroughs in intelligent drug delivery applications. We comprehensively summarize cutting-edge advances in nanozyme-based delivery systems for managing inflammations, infections, and malignancies, and other conditions. Additionally, we also discuss nanozymes serve as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), photoacoustic imaging, and computed tomography (CT) to achieve imaging-guided diagnosis. Building upon this foundation, designing smart drug carriers based on nanozymes with the potential to support future clinical translation of multifunctional drug delivery systems. This review is expected to provide insights into the advancements in nanozymes for enhanced applications in the biomedical field.