Investigating the Mechanism of Horseradish Peroxidase as a RAFT-Initiase

A detailed mechanistic and kinetic study of enzymatically initiated RAFT polymerization is performed by combining enzymatic assays and polymerization kinetics analysis. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) initiated RAFT polymerization of dimethylacrylamide (DMAm) was studied. This polymerization was controlled by 2-(propionic acid)ylethyl trithiocarbonate (PAETC) in the presence of H₂O₂ as a substrate and acetylacetone (ACAC) as a mediator. In general, well controlled polymers with narrow molecular weight distributions and good agreement between theoretical and measured molecular weights are consistently obtained by this method. Kinetic and enzymatic assay analyses show that HRP loading accelerates the reaction, with a critical concentration of ACAC needed to effectively generate polymerization initiating radicals. The PAETC RAFT agent is required to control the reaction, although the RAFT agent also has an inhibitory effect on enzymatic performance and polymerization. Interestingly, although H₂O₂ is the substrate for HRP there is an optimal concentration near 1 mM, under the conditions studies, with higher or lower concentrations leading to lower polymerization rates and poorer enzymatic activity. This is explained through a competition between the H₂O₂ acting as a substrate, but also an inhibitor of HRP at high concentrations.

Radical-Mediated Enzymatic Polymerizations

Polymerization reactions are commonly effected by exposing monomer formulations to some initiation stimulus such as elevated temperature, light, or a chemical reactant. Increasingly, these polymerization reactions are mediated by enzymes--catalytic proteins--owing to their reaction efficiency under mild conditions as well as their environmental friendliness. The utilization of enzymes, particularly oxidases and peroxidases, for generating radicals via reduction-oxidation mechanisms is especially common for initiating radical-mediated polymerization reactions, including vinyl chain-growth polymerization, atom transfer radical polymerization, thiol-ene step-growth polymerization, and polymerization via oxidative coupling. While enzyme-mediated polymerization is useful for the production of materials intended for subsequent use, it is especially well-suited for in situ polymerizations, where the polymer is formed in the place where it will be utilized. Such polymerizations are especially useful for biomedical adhesives and for sensing applications.

Oxygen-Mediated Enzymatic Polymerization of Thiol-Ene Hydrogels

Materials that solidify in response to an initiation stimulus are currently utilized in several biomedical and surgical applications; however, their clinical adoption would be more widespread with improved physical properties and biocompatibility. One chemistry that is particularly promising is based on the thiol-ene addition reaction, a radical-mediated step-growth polymerization that is resistant to oxygen inhibition and thus is an excellent candidate for materials that polymerize upon exposure to aerobic conditions. Here, thiol-ene-based hydrogels are polymerized by exposing aqueous solutions of multi-functional thiol and allyl ether PEG monomers, in combination with enzymatic radical initiating systems, to air. An initiating system based on glucose oxidase, glucose, and Fe²⁺ is initially investigated where, in the presence of glucose, the glucose oxidase reduces oxygen to hydrogen peroxide which is then further reduced by Fe²⁺ to yield hydroxyl radicals capable of initiating thiol-ene polymerization. While this system is shown to effectively initiate polymerization after exposure to oxygen, the polymerization rate does not monotonically increase with raised Fe²⁺ concentration owing to inhibitory reactions that retard polymerization at higher Fe²⁺ concentrations. Conversely, replacing the Fe²⁺ with horseradish peroxidase affords an initiating system is that is not subject to the iron-mediated inhibitory reactions and enables increased polymerization rates to be attained.