Engineering nanozymes for cancer theranostics: Chemical design, catalytic intelligence, and translational oncology...

Nanozymes represent a transformative convergence of chemistry, nanotechnology, and biomedicine, giving rise to a new generation of enzyme-mimicking nanomaterials. Unlike natural enzymes that function optimally within narrow physiological ranges, nanozymes exhibit exceptional structural adaptability, tunable catalytic activity, and superior stability, making them highly promising for translational biomedical and oncological applications. This review focuses on the chemistry-guided design principles that govern nanozyme performance, emphasizing how composition, size, morphology, crystal facets, defect engineering, and surface functionalization collectively influence catalytic behavior. The discussion covers a wide range of enzyme-like activities, such as peroxidase, oxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase mimetics, multi-enzyme and cascade catalytic mechanisms and the underlying chemistry of these activities. Furthermore, this review explores the broad biomedical landscape of nanozymes, spanning biosensing, diagnostics, tumor microenvironment (TME) modulation, reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated cancer therapy, antibacterial and antioxidant interventions, imaging, theranostics, and tissue engineering. Special emphasis is placed on the emerging role of nanozymes in cancer diagnosis, targeted therapy, cancer nanotheranostics, and precision oncology. Despite remarkable progress, challenges persist regarding toxicity, substrate specificity, in vivo stability, and large-scale reproducibility. Advances in rational chemical design, computational modeling, green synthesis, and integration with smart nanomedicine approaches are expected to address these limitations. In essence, this review underscores that chemistry not only drives the creation of nanozymes but also directs their evolution into next-generation oncological and biomedical platforms, enabling precise, multifunctional, and patient-tailored therapeutic strategies for translational cancer medicine.