Nanozymes and Glucuronides: Glucuronidase, Esterase, and/or Transferase Activity

Nanozymes are fundamentally interesting catalysts that are investigated as alternatives to fragile protein-enzymes for applications in biotechnology, for prodrug activation, and use in biomedicine, as well as the catalysts that contributed to the Origin of Life. However, until now, nanozymes mostly have been documented to exhibit activity as red/ox catalysts, whereas examples of activity outside this broad class of reactions are very few. Herein, activity of nanozymes on glucuronide prodrugs is investigated, specifically focusing on the mechanism of prodrug conversion reactions. The main finding of this work is that nanozymes exhibit glucuronide-like activity, but also catalyze prodrug conversion via esterase-like mechanism and facilitate group transfer reactions.