Giant nanotubes equipped with horseradish peroxidase active sites: a powerful nanozyme co-assembled from supramolecular amphiphiles for glucose detection

Construction of biomimetic nanozymes has attracted considerable attention because these artificial enzymes not only exhibited catalytic effects similar to those of natural enzymes, but were also more economical and stable than natural enzymes for a wide range of practical applications. Herein, a peroxidase-like nanozyme was constructed by supramolecular co-assembled strategy, in which horseradish peroxidase active sites (histidine-heme-histidine) were loaded on giant supramolecular tubular scaffolds. The giant nanotube carried a large number of histidine-heme-histidine active sites on the surface thus exhibiting admirable activity with the high apparent second-order rate constant (kcat[Heme]/Km) of 572.2 M−1s−1 per single heme molecule and also showing high stability. Furthermore, the nanozyme was further applied to detect glucose through test paper by loading with extremely low levels of nanozyme, revealing its potential application in the rapid diagnosis of diabetes.