Catalase-Mimetic Artificial Biocatalysts with Ru Catalytic Centers for ROS Elimination and Stem-Cell Protection

Exploring high-efficiency reactive oxygen species (ROS)-elimination materials is of great importance for combating oxidative stress in diverse diseases, especially stem-cell-based biotherapeutics. By mimicking the FeN active centers of natural catalase, here, an innovative concept to design ROS-elimination artificial biocatalysts with Ru catalytic centers for stem-cell protection is reported. The experimental studies and theoretical calculations have systematically disclosed the activity merits and structure diversities of different Ru sites when serving as ROS-elimination artificial biocatalysts. Benefiting from the metallic electronic structures and synergetic effects of multiple sites, the artificial biocatalysts with Ru cluster centers present exceptional ROS-elimination activity; notably, it shows much higher catalytic efficiency per Ru atom on decomposing H₂ O₂ when compared to the isolated single-atom Ru sites, which is more efficient than that of the natural antioxidants and recently reported state-of-the-art ROS-scavenging biocatalysts. The systematic stem-cell protection studies reveal that the catalase-like artificial biocatalysts can provide efficient rescue ability for survival, adhesion, and differentiation functions of human mesenchymal stem cells in high ROS level conditions. It is suggested that applying these artificial biocatalysts with Ru cluster centers will offer a new pathway for engineering high-performance ROS-scavenging materials in stem-cell-based therapeutics and many other ROS-related diseases.