Protein-protected metal nanoclusters have excellent biocompatibility and have received considerable attention as a luminescent probe in a number of fields such as biosensing, bioimaging, and imaging-guided therapy.
However, apart from unique optical properties, protein-protected metal nanoclusters also possess interesting biological properties such as enzyme-like activity similar to that of natural enzyme.
“Nanozymes” is a new term used to refer to nanomaterials with intrinsic enzyme-like activity. Nowadays, more than 540 kinds of nanomaterials, which possess intrinsic enzymatic activity, have been reported from 350 laboratories in 30 countries and have been used in biological analysis, environmental treatment, as antibacterial agents, cancer therapy, and antioxidation therapy.
