Due to its complex pathogenesis involving dysregulated reactive oxygen species (ROS) storms, cytokine hyperactivation and immune cell infiltration, acute lung injury (ALI) presents critical clinical challenges, and conventional therapies often fail to address the dual requirements of precise inflammatory targeting and microenvironment regulation. Herein, we report an intelligent biomimetic nanosystem (CeGM) featuring (i) synergistic catalytic circuits, where hollow CeO₂ nanoenzymes are combined with glycyrrhizic acid (GA) through density functional theory (DFT)-optimized binding configurations, achieving charge redistribution-induced dual-site catalytic activation relative to conventional CeO₂ alone; (ii) pathology-responsive delivery, where macrophage membrane camouflage enables lipopolysaccharide (LPS) recognition and inflammatory chemotaxis, yielding 7.8-fold higher alveolar accumulation than non-coated counterparts in LPS-induced ALI models; (iii) multidimensional immunomodulation, where NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation (56.20% interleukin-1β (IL-1β) reduction) and M1 macrophage polarization (2.4-fold M2/M1 ratio increase) are concurrently suppressed through GA-mediated nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathway inhibition and CeO₂-mediated redox homeostasis restoration. This dual-functional nanoplatform demonstrates favourable therapeutic outcomes in mitigating pulmonary edema by clearing ROS (47.20% reduction in ROS levels), neutrophil infiltration (58.16% myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity decrease) and cytokine storms (tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) reduction of 45.90%), offering a paradigm-shifting strategy for precision nanomedicine in acute inflammatory disorders.

Metal ions play critical roles in chemical, biological, and environmental processes. Various biomolecules have the ability to coordinate with metal ions and form various materials. Nucleobases, nucleosides, and nucleotides, as the essential components of DNA, have emerged as a useful building block for the construction of functional nanomaterials. In recent years, DNA oligonucleotides have also been used for this purpose. We herein review the strategies for the synthesis of soft nanomaterials through the assembly of nucleotides (or DNA) and metal ions to yield various nanoparticles, fibers, and hydrogels. Such coordination methods are simple to operate and can be carried out under ambient conditions. The luminescent, catalytic, and molecular recognition properties of these coordination materials are described with representative recent examples. Their applications ranging from biosensing, enzyme encapsulation, catalysis, templated shell growth to cancer therapy are highlighted. Finally, challenges of this field and future perspectives are discussed.