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A cerium-based MOFzyme with multi-enzyme-like
activity for the disruption and inhibition of fungal
recolonization

Research Authors
Abdelhamid H. N., Ghada Abd-Elmonsef Mahmoud, Sharmoukc W.
Research Abstract

A cerium-based metal–organic framework (Ce-MOF, denoted as AU-1) was synthesized using a solvothermal
method by employing 4,40,400-nitrilotribenzoic acid (H3NTB) as the linker and cerium clusters as the metal
center. The material was considered as a MOFzyme based on the peroxidase-like activity of Ce-MOF
that could eliminate and kill fungi, such as Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus terreus,
Candida albicans, and Rhodotorula glutinis. Ce-MOF showed high antifungal activity against airborne
opportunistic human pathogens isolated from the outside of a hospital. The antifungal activity of CeMOF
was evaluated using the colony-forming units, dry mass method, soluble proteins, and microscopic
imaging. It exhibited an inhibition efficiency of 93.3–99.3% based on the colony-forming unit method.
The Ce-MOF caused extensive deformation of the conidiophores, vesicles, and phialides with growth
inhibition between 7.55–77.41% (based on the dry mass method). Ce-MOF showed different efficiencies
in inhibiting the different fungal species. The biological activity of Ce-MOF was due to its enzymatic
activity, such as those of antioxidants, catalase, superoxide dismutase, and peroxidase. Ce-MOF
exhibited excellent enzymatic activity towards the fungal cells. Our results may facilitate the design of a
MOFzyme system and pave the way for more profound applications of nanozymes.

Research Department
Research Journal
Journal of Materials Chemistry B
Research Member
Research Publisher
The Royal Society of Chemistry
Research Rank
1
Research Vol
8(33)
Research Website
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/tb/2020/d0tb00894j#!divAbstract
Research Year
2020
Research Pages
7548-7556