Papaya latex mediated synthesis of prism shaped proteolytic gold nanozymes

Beyond natural enzymes, the artificially synthesized nanozymes have attracted a significant interest as it can overcome the limitations of the former. Here, we report synthesis of shape controlled nanozymes showing proteolytic activity using Carica papaya L. (papaya) latex. The nanozymes synthesized under optimized reaction conditions exhibited sharp SPR peak around 550 nm with high abundance (45.85%) of prism shaped particles. FTIR analysis and coagulation test indicated the presence of papaya latex enzymes as capping agents over the gold nanoprisms. The milk clot assay and the inhibition test with egg white confirmed the proteolytic activity of the nanozymes and the presence of cysteine protease on it, respectively. The nanozymes were found to be biocompatible and did not elicit any toxic response in both in-vitro and in-vivo study. Based on our findings, we envisage that these biocompatible, shape-specific nanozymes can have potential theragnostic applications.