Catalytic Detoxification of Endotoxins

While solvent extraction and affinity adsorption have been discovered for endotoxin removal fifty years ago, endotoxin contaminations still result in large number of deaths, especially in less developed areas. This necessitated a mechanistic breakthrough of endotoxin removal or detoxification. Herein, a catalytic inactivation strategy was developed for detoxification of endotoxins. CeO2 was discovered to show a unique phosphatase-like activity in 70 tested synthetic nanomaterials by selectively catalyzing the breaks of P-O bonds from substrates consisting of R-O-PO3. This material performed high catalytic efficiency comparable to protein enzyme and was more robust to reaction circumstances. Catalytic treatment by CeO2 significantly reduced phosphate groups of endotoxins and ameliorated their immune toxicities. As a proof of concept, CeO2 coated HEPA filters were fabricated and inactivated 98% airborne endotoxins. Besides, a catalytic column constructed by CeO2 displayed 16-fold higher treatment capacity to LPS-contaminated water than commercial resins. Overall, our findings offered a different mechanistic insight for removal of endotoxins.