Nanozymes for ischemic stroke: From antioxidant scavengers to precision catalytic therapeutics

Ischemic stroke remains a leading cause of death and long-term disability worldwide, with limited therapeutic options due to narrow treatment windows and severe ischemia reperfusion injury. The excessive generation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species plays a central role in driving oxidative damage, neuroinflammation, and blood-brain barrier disruption, making redox regulation a promising therapeutic strategy. Nanozymes, a class of nanomaterials with enzyme like catalytic activity, have recently emerged as a versatile platform for stroke therapy owing to their superior stability, tunable catalytic properties, and amenability to functional design. Beyond conventional antioxidant scavenging, recent advances have enabled nanozymes to achieve targeted delivery, microenvironment responsiveness, and subcellular localization, thereby allowing more precise intervention within the neurovascular unit. In this review, we summarize the classification and catalytic mechanisms of nanozymes, highlight emerging design strategies for enhanced brain delivery and therapeutic efficacy, and discuss key challenges associated with biosafety and clinical translation. Collectively, nanozymes represent a promising direction toward catalytic and precision-based therapeutics for ischemic stroke.