Photo-Fenozyme Nanoparticles Based on Fe(II)-Coordination-Driven Cyanine-Based Amino Acid Assembly for Photodynamic Ferrotherapy

Nanoparticle-based enzyme mimics have fewer applications in ferrotherapy so far. The limited number of integrated biomimetic architectures satisfy biobuilding blocks and adaptability in the high efficiency of ferrotherapy requirements. Herein, we develop a minimal nanoparticle as an efficient photodynamic ferrotherapy agent, which is constructed through ferrous-coordination-driven cyanine-based amino acid assembly. In comparison with a free photosensitizer, this nanoparticle (photofenozyme) composed of Fe-containing cores and serum protein shells is fabricated. And it has a high light-harvesting ability, and a higher intersystem crossing (ISC) rate constant (4.41 × 1011 s–1 versus 1.17 × 106 s–1), which benefits efficient production of the triplet state. The photofenozyme allows adaptive photo-Fenton-like activity based on the different radical generations. And they further trigger and photoenhance efficient ferroptosis. This work provides insights into optimizing current photosensitizers to generate an adaptive supramolecular photocatalyst and presents a promising strategy to design multifunctional nanozyme theranostics.