Hydrolytic Disruption of Viral Envelopes for Broad-Adaptive Antiviral Protection by an Esterase-Mimicking Nanozyme based on Copper Imidazole-Carboxylate Coordination

Abstract Viral infections pose a persistent challenge to global public health and cause millions of infections and substantial mortality each year. There is therefore an urgent need for effective antiviral strategies to limit the transmission of viruses such as influenza A virus and SARS-CoV-2. In this work, we report a copper imidazole-carboxylate coordinated nanozyme (Cu-ImCar) with high esterase-mimicking activity and potent antiviral performance. Mechanistic studies reveal that Cu-ImCar nanozyme catalyzes the hydrolysis of lipid components in the viral envelope, leading to structural disruption and rapid loss of viral infectivity. In addition, the nanozyme demonstrates excellent catalytic stability and tolerance to extreme conditions. When functionalized onto fabrics, Cu-ImCar nanozyme efficiently inactivated influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus over a wide temperature range (−20 to 37 °C). Notably, at a moderately elevated temperature of 50 °C, it reduces viral titers to undetectable levels within 5 min, even at the low loading level (6.25 μg cm–2). These findings establish Cu-ImCar as a robust antiviral nanozyme with broad environmental adaptability and highlight the potential of esterase-mimicking catalysis as an effective strategy for viral inactivation and transmission control.