Nanozyme biosensors: Catalytic mechanism, activity regulation, signal amplification and application in food analysis.

Natural enzymes face challenges such as susceptibility to denaturation and inactivation, high production costs, and low yields, limiting their widespread use. Nanozyme, as a novel artificial enzyme, have developed a new promising research field due to their good catalytic activity, high stability, tunable enzyme-like activity, and improvement of natural enzyme drawbacks. They play a crucial role in detecting substances such as glucose, pathogens, heavy metals, and others in food analysis. In this review, the enzyme-like activity and catalytic mechanism of nanozymes are firstly introduced; followed by summarizing the methods for controlling the catalytic activity of nanozymes and their methods to achieve signal amplification. Immediately after that, the nanomaterials used for the preparation of nanozymes and the preparation methods of nanozymes are summarized. Additionally, given the rapid advancements in nanozymes research, this paper also explores various types of nanozyme-based biosensors and their applications in food analysis. Finally, underlying challenges and future perspectives of nanozymes are discussed in this review.