Abstract

In the present work, cytidine 5′-monophosphate capped gold nanoclusters (AuNCs@CMP) are reported as a catalyst for redox reactions, which show both oxidase- and excellent peroxidase-like activity. When employing 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) as a substrate in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), the maximum velocity (V_max) was 175 × 10^–8 M s^–1in vitro. Besides, the AuNCs@CMP exhibited high catalytic activity for reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation with H₂O₂. Particularly, they also displayed excellent catalytic activity for ROS generation in tumor cells, being activated and promoted by the tumor microenvironment (TME). Consequently, the AuNCs@CMP show an excellent antitumor effect on HeLa and SW480 cells as assayed by flow cytometry. The antitumor mechanism of AuNCs@CMP was attributed to the high ROS generation based on the specific environments of the TME. Therefore, the present study provides TME-adaptive AuNCs@CMP with excellent mimetic peroxidase activity, producing significant ROS to kill the tumor cells in TME.