journal article·2026-06Open access

Design of Single‐Atom Nanozymes for Precision Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction with Integrated Single‐Cell RNA Sequencing and Machine Learning

Xiang Zhou, Xi Zhang, Sihan Chen, Mengchi Yu, Yilan Hu, Chi Gan, Xianghu Meng, Long Li, Ninghong Song

Advanced Science· Volume 13· Issue 36

Abstract

ABSTRACT Patients with diabetes mellitus‐induced erectile dysfunction (DMED) usually suffer more severe symptoms, and efficacy of the first‐line therapy is limited. This study develops an integrated framework combining single‐cell RNA sequencing (scRNA‐seq) and machine learning (ML) to design nanozymes with specific enzyme‐mimicking types for precision treatment of DMED. First, scRNA‐seq analysis demonstrated increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and downregulated expression level of glutathione peroxidase (GPx), catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in the corpus cavernosum of DMED patients. Second, a nanozyme database is constructed based on the published researches. With this database, two ML models are developed to predict the enzyme‐mimicking types of nanozymes, which showed that iron (Fe)‐based nanozymes are particularly suitable for addressing reductase deficiencies in DMED. Thus, the Fe‐DMOF, an Fe‐based single atom nanozyme (SAzyme), is synthesized, simultaneously exhibiting GPx‐, CAT‐ and SOD‐like activities. Fe‐DMOF can significantly reduce the ROS accumulation and inhibit the ROS‐induced histone lactylation modifications, furtherly reversing the inflammatory differentiation of fibroblasts and macrophages in the diabetic corpus cavernosum. These results not only highlight the efficacy of Fe‐DMOF in DMED treatment, but also validate the scRNA‐seq + ML framework as an effective approach for data‐driven SAzyme design for disease‐specific treatment.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Advanced Nanomaterials in Catalysis · Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics · Nanocluster Synthesis and Applications

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Urology The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University Nanjing P. R. China

Department of Urology The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Nanjing Medical University Jiangsu Cancer Hospital Jiangsu Institute of Cancer Research Nanjing P. R. China

The First School of Clinical Medicine Nanjing Medical University Nanjing P. R. China

Knuppe Molecular Urology Laboratory Department of Urology School of Medicine University of California San Francisco USA

State Key Laboratory of Organic Electronics and Information Displays & Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biosensors Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM) Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM) Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications Nanjing P. R. China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

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