In this review, recent progress in MOF-based composites was summarized with an effort to clarify the structure–performance relationship of MOF-based composites, with particular emphasis on the functions of MOF components for practical applications.

Encapsulating nanoparticles/biomolecules into metal–organic freamworks (MOFs) has proven to be highly effective in creating new functions during their applications. However, it is highly desirable yet remains challenging to achieve the synergy of specific functions between the MOF host and guest species. Herein, inspired by the natural multienzyme system, a novel MOF composite biomimetic structure based on the coencapsulation of glucose oxidase (GOx) and l-arginine (l-Arg) into Cu-MOFs (CuBDC) with Fenton-like catalytic activity is designed for achieving the synergistic antibacterial effect. Once activated by GOx-catalyzed glucose oxidation, a large amount of oxygen radicals, toxic ONOO–, and NO are rapidly produced over this well-designed l-Arg/GOx@CuBDC through a double-cascade reaction. Thanks to the synergy of highly reactive species, outstanding antibacterial effects (bacterial inactivation ≥97%) are observed at very low doses (38 μg mL–1 for Escherichia coli and 3.8 μg mL–1 for Staphylococcus aureus). In addition, the in vivo experiment in mice demonstrated that the as-prepared l-Arg/GOx@CuBDC has good biocompatibility, indicating its good potential in practical applications. Such a biomimetic multienzyme system proposes a new design idea for highly efficient antibiosis as well as even therapy for tumors.

Integrated nanozymes have recently attracted intense attention because of their promising applications in many fields, including biosensing. However, methods to efficiently activate cascade reactions remain challenging when designing and constructing integrated nanozymes. Herein, inspired by the compartmentalization and substrate-channeling effects of natural enzymes in organisms, a metal−organic framework (MOF)-based integrated nanozyme was prepared by encapsulating a natural enzyme (GOx) within the copper 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate (CuBDC) MOF nanozyme via a one-step biomimetic mineralization process at room temperature. Benefiting from the highly ordered peroxidase-like active sites in CuBDC and the confinement effect of CuBDC, the compartmentalization and substrate-channeling effects were achieved in the GOx@CuBDC integrated nanozyme. Surprisingly, the GOx@CuBDC integrated nanozyme displayed a 12.5-fold enhancement compared with the cascade reaction system using free GOx and CuBDC in detecting glucose. Furthermore, this biosensor exhibited a good linear relationship in the concentration range 10− 500 μM, with a low detection limit of 4.1 μM (S/N = 3), and also demonstrated excellent stability, reusability, and selectivity. This work may spark a new design strategy for high-performance integrated nanozymes.