Biomimetic Fe-Cu Dual-atomic-site catalysts enable efficient H2O2 activation for tumor lymphatic metastasis inhibition

Achieving efficient activation of H2O2 in the tumor microenvironment (TME) and further improving the therapeutic efficiency is a great challenge in chemodynamic therapy against cancer. Herein, inspired by natural enzymes, atomically dispersed catalysts with Fe-Cu hetero-binuclear active sites on hollow nitrogen-doped carbon nanospheres (FeCuNC) are synthesized as catalytic nanomedicines for cancer therapy. We found that Fe-Cu hetero-binuclear sites in FeCuNC can catalytically dissociate the O–O bonds in H2O2 molecules more easily than those of single-Fe sites. Besides, the intrinsic photothermal effect of FeCuNC not only further accelerates H2O2 decomposition to produce abundant reactive oxygen species but also achieves synergistically chemodynamic therapy and photothermal therapy to induce cancer cell apoptosis and restrain tumor growth. Moreover, FeCuNC can accurately identify sentinel lymph node metastasis and effectively suppress tumor metastasis and recurrence. This work will provide an advanced strategy for the design of advanced catalysts for H2O2 activation in TME, which holds great promise for practical clinical applications.