Biocatalysis: Immobilized cells and enzymes

Intrinsic mechanisms for the inhibition effect of graphene oxide on the catalysis activity of alpha amylase

Comprehending the interactions between graphene oxide (GO) and enzymes is critical for understanding the toxicities of GO. In this study, the inherent interactions of GO with α-amylase as a typical enzyme, and the impacts of GO on the conformation and biological activities of α-amylase were systematically investigated. The results reveal that GO formed ground-state complex with α-amylase primarily via hydrogen bonding and van der Waals interactions, thus quenching the intrinsic fluorescence of the protein statically. Particularly, the strong interactions altered the microenvironment of tyrosine and tryptophan residues, caused rearrangement of polypeptide structure, and reduced the contents of α-helices and β-sheets, thus changing the conformational structure of α-amylase. According to molecular docking results, GO binds with the amino acid residues (i.e., His299, Asp300, and His305) of α-amylase mainly through hydrogen bonding, which is in accordance with in vitro incubation experiments. As a consequence, the ability of α-amylase to catalyze starch hydrolysis into glucose was depressed by GO, suggesting that GO might cause dysfunction of α-amylase. This study discloses the intrinsic binding mechanisms of GO with α-amylase and provides novel insights into the adverse effects of GO as it enters organisms.

Immobilization of E. coli expressing γ-glutamyltranspeptidase on its surface for γ-glutamyl compound production

An Escherichia coli strain expressing γ-glutamyltranspeptidase on its extracellular surface using the Met1 to Arg232 fragment of YiaT of E. coli as an anchor protein was immobilized with alginate for repeated use. Measurement of γ-glutamyltranspeptidase activity of the immobilized cells was performed repeatedly at pH 8.73 and 37 °C for 10 days using γ-glutamyl-p-nitroanilide in the presence of 100 mM CaCl₂ and 3% NaCl with and without glycylglycine. Even after the 10th day, the enzyme activity did not decrease from the initial levels. The production of γ-glutamylglutamine from glutamine using the immobilized cells was performed repeatedly at pH 10.5 and 37 °C for 10 days in the presence of 250 mM glutamine, 100 mM CaCl₂, and 3% NaCl. Sixty-four % of glutamine was converted to γ-glutamylglutamine in the first cycle. While repeating the production 10 times, the surface of the beads gradually became covered with white precipitate, and the conversion efficiency gradually decreased, but 72% of the initial value still remained even at the 10th measurement.

First Example of the Extracellular Surface Expression of Intrinsically Periplasmic Escherichia coli γ-Glutamyltranspeptidase, a Member of the N-Terminal Nucleophile Hydrolase Superfamily, and the Use of Cells as a Catalyst for γ-Glutamylvalylglycine Production

Although the purified Escherichia coli γ-glutamyltranspeptidase has much higher transpeptidation activity than hydrolysis activity, almost all γ-glutamyltranspeptidase activity is hydrolysis activity in vivo, that is when measured using the whole cells. By using the Met1 to Arg232 fragment of E. coli YiaT or the CapA of Bacillus subtilis subsp. Natto as an anchor protein, we succeeded in expressing E. coli γ-glutamyltranspeptidase on the extracellular surface of the cells, and these cells showed higher transpeptidation activity than hydrolysis activity in the presence of NaCl. Furthermore, E. coli cells overexpressing γ-glutamyltranspeptidase without an anchor from the T5 promoter maintained γ-glutamyltranspeptidase on the extracellular surface of the cells immediately after being harvested from the culture medium, but the enzyme was released from the extracellular surface of the cells subsequently in the absence of NaCl. Using these cells expressing γ-glutamyltranspeptidase on the extracellular surface, γ-Glu-Val-Gly, a kokumi compound, was successfully produced.

Selective biofunctionalization of 3D cell-imprinted PDMS with collagen immobilization for targeted cell attachment

Cell-imprinted polydimethylsiloxane substrates, in terms of their ability to mimic the physiological niche, low microfabrication cost, and excellent biocompatibility were widely used in tissue engineering. Cells inside the mature cells' cell-imprinted PDMS pattern have been shown in previous research to be capable of being differentiated into a specific mature cell line. On the other hand, the hydrophobicity of PDMS substrate leads to weak cell adhesion. Moreover, there was no guarantee that the cells would be exactly located in the cavities of the cells' pattern. In many studies, PDMS surface was modified by plasma treatment, chemical modification, and ECM coating. Hence, to increase the efficiency of cell-imprinting method, the concavity region created by the cell-imprinted pattern is conjugated with collagen. A simple and economical method of epoxy silane resin was applied for the selective protein immobilization on the desired regions of the PDMS substrate. This method could be paved to enhance the cell trapping into the cell-imprinted pattern, and it could be helpful for stem cell differentiation studies. The applied method for selective protein attachment, and as a consequence, selective cell integration was assessed on the aligned cell-imprinted PDMS. A microfluidic chip created the aligned cell pattern. After Ar⁺ plasma and APTES treatment of the PDMS substrate, collagen immobilization was performed. The immobilized collagen was removed by epoxy silane resin stamp from the ridge area where the substrate lacked cell pattern and leaving the collagen only within the patterned areas. Coomassie brilliant blue staining was evaluated for selective collagen immobilization, and the collagen-binding stability was assessed by BCA analysis. MTT assay for the evaluation of cell viability on the modified surface was further analyzed. Subsequently, the crystal violet staining has confirmed the selective cell integration to the collagen-immobilized site on the PDMS substrate. The results proved the successfully selective collagen immobilization on the cell-imprinted PDMS and showed that this method increased the affinity of cells to attach inside the cell pattern cavity.

The challenges of using NAD+-dependent formate dehydrogenases for CO2 conversion

In recent years, CO₂ reduction and utilization have been proposed as an innovative solution for global warming and the ever-growing energy and raw material demands. In contrast to various classical methods, including chemical, electrochemical, and photochemical methods, enzymatic methods offer a green and sustainable option for CO₂ conversion. In addition, enzymatic hydrogenation of CO₂ into platform chemicals could be used to produce economically useful hydrogen storage materials, making it a win-win strategy. The thermodynamic and kinetic stability of the CO₂ molecule makes its utilization a challenging task. However, Nicotine adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺)-dependent formate dehydrogenases (FDHs), which have high selectivity and specificity, are attractive catalysts to overcome this issue and convert CO₂ into fuels and renewable chemicals. It is necessary to improve the stability, cofactor necessity, and CO₂ conversion efficiency of these enzymes, such as by combining them with appropriate hybrid systems. However, metal-independent, NAD⁺-dependent FDHs, and their CO₂ reduction activity have received limited attention to date. This review outlines the CO₂ reduction ability of these enzymes as well as their properties, reaction mechanisms, immobilization strategies, and integration with electrochemical and photochemical systems for the production of formic acid or formate. The biotechnological applications of FDH, future perspectives, barriers to CO₂ reduction with FDH, and aspects that must be further developed are briefly summarized. We propose that constructing hybrid systems that include NAD⁺-dependent FDHs is a promising approach to convert CO₂ and strengthen the sustainable carbon bio-economy.

Very Strong but Reversible Immobilization of Enzymes on Supports Coated with Ionic Polymers

In this chapter, the properties of tailor-made anionic exchanger resins based on films of large polyethylenimine polymers (e.g., molecular weight 25,000) as supports for strong but reversible immobilization of proteins are shown. The polymer is completely coated, via covalent immobilization, the surface of different porous supports. Proteins can interact with this polymeric bed, involving a large percentage of the protein surface in the adsorption. Different enzymes have been very strongly adsorbed on these supports, retaining enzyme activities. On the other hand, adsorption is very strong and the derivatives may be used under a wide range of pH and ionic strengths. These supports may be useful even to stabilize multimeric enzymes, by involving several enzyme subunits in the immobilization.

Multi-Point Covalent Immobilization of Enzymes on Supports Activated with Epoxy Groups: Stabilization of Industrial Enzymes

Commercial epoxy supports may be very useful tools to stabilize proteins via multipoint covalent attachment if the immobilization is properly designed. In this chapter, a protocol to take full advantage of the support's possibilities is described. The basics of the protocol are as follows: (1) the enzymes are hydrophobically adsorbed on the supports at high ionic strength. (2) There is an "intermolecular" covalent reaction between the adsorbed protein and the supports. (3) The immobilized protein is incubated at alkaline pH to increase the multipoint covalent attachment, thereby stabilizing the enzyme. (4) The hydrophobic surface of the support is hydrophylized by reaction of the remaining groups with amino acids in order to reduce the unfavorable enzyme-support hydrophobic interactions. This strategy has produced a significant increase in the stability of penicillin G acylase compared with the stability achieved using conventional protocols.

Polyionic Hydrogels Obtained by Complexation between Xanthan and Chitosan: Their Properties as Supports for Enzyme Immobilization

A method for the preparation of hydrogels from the complexation of chitosan and xanthan is reported. Stable hydrogels capable of retaining be tween 65 and 95% weight water were prepared. The water retention and prop erties of the hydrogels were studied as a function of the degree of acetylation of chitosan and the ratio chitosan/xanthan used in the preparation of the gel. Spectroscopic FTIR was used to confirm complexation between the amine (chi tosan) and carboxylic (xanthan) groups. Electron micrographs (SEM and TEM) show the formation of a fibrillar structure with characteristic pore sizes be tween 100 and 1000 nm and fibril diameters between 50 and 100 nm. The diffu sion coefficient of 4- O-methyl- d-glucurono-D-xylan Remazol Brilliant Blue R (RBB-xylan) in the complex chitosan-xanthan was 2.02 × 10-12 m 2s-1 at 30°C. The chitosan-xanthan complex was used to immobilize two enzymes (endo-1,4- β-xylanase and protease) either as single enzymes or as a binary system. Immo bilization varied between 85 and 98%. The immobilized xylanase activity was significantly greater with respect to the free enzyme while the binary enzyme system promoted protease activity.

Design of a core–shell support to improve lipase features by immobilization

Different core–shell polymeric supports, exhbiting different featured, were produced and utilized in the immobilization and tuning of different lipases.

Versatility of divinylsulfone supports permits the tuning of CALB properties during its immobilization

Properties of CALB has been modulated by immobilization on divinylsulfone (DVS) activated agarose beads under different conditions (pH 5–10).

Characterization of supports activated with divinyl sulfone as a tool to immobilize and stabilize enzymes via multipoint covalent attachment. Application to chymotrypsin

DVS supports are very suitable to stabilize enzymes via multipoint covalent attachment.

Immobilization of enzymes on monofunctional and heterofunctional epoxy-activated supports

The immobilization of proteins on epoxy activated supports is discussed in this chapter. Immobilization on epoxy supports is carried out as a two-step mechanism: in the first step the adsorption of the protein is promoted and in the second step the intramolecular covalent linkage among epoxy groups and nucleophiles of the protein is produced. Based on this mechanism of the need of a first adsorption of the protein on the support, different epoxy supports are described. The different supports are able to immobilize proteins through different orientations being obtained catalysts with different properties of activity, stability, and selectivity.

Oriented covalent immobilization of enzymes on heterofunctional-glyoxyl supports

Novel heterofunctional glyoxyl-agarose supports were prepared. These supports contained the maximal concentration of glyoxyl groups to promote maximization of covalent immobilization and groups' capability to adsorb proteins by various mechanisms (e.g., ionic exchange, metal-chelate formation). Immobilization on various supports makes it possible to orientate and rigidify an enzyme in various regions of its surface. The use of different heterofunctional supports allowed for obtaining catalysts with different activity, stability, and selectivity properties.

Affinity covalent immobilization of glucoamylase onto ρ-benzoquinone activated alginate beads: I. Beads preparation and characterization

ρ-Benzoquinone-activated alginate beads were presented as a new carrier for affinity covalent immobilization of glucoamylase enzyme. Evidences of alginate modification were extracted from FT-IR and thermal gravimetric analysis and supported by morphological changes recognized through SEM examination. Factors affecting the modification process such as ρ-benzoquinone (PBQ) concentration, reaction time, reaction temperature, reaction pH and finally alginate concentration, have been studied. Its influence on the amount of coupled PBQ was consequently correlated to the changes of the catalytic activity and the retained activity of immobilized enzyme, the main parameters judging the success of the immobilization process. The immobilized glucoamylase was found kept almost 80% of its native activity giving proof of non-significant substrate, starch, diffusion limitation. The proposed affinity covalent immobilizing technique would rank among the potential strategies for efficient immobilization of glucoamylase enzyme.

Synthesis of a mesoporous functional copolymer bead carrier and its properties for glucoamylase immobilization

A series of mesoporous and hydrophilic novel bead carriers containing epoxy groups were synthesized by modified inverse suspension polymerization. Glycidyl methacrylate and acryloyloxyethyl trimethyl ammonium chloride were used as the monomers, and divinyl benzene, allyl methacrylate, and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as crosslinking agents, respectively. The resulting carriers were employed in the immobilization of glucoamylase (Glu) with covalent bond between epoxy groups and enzymes. The activity recovery of the three series of immobilized Glus could reach 76%, 79%, and 86%, respectively. The immobilized Glus exhibit excellent stability and reusability than that of the free ones.

New Cationic Exchanger Support for Reversible Immobilization of Proteins

New tailor-made cationic exchange resins have been prepared by covalently binding aspartic-dextran polymers (e.g. MW 15 000-20 000) to porous supports (aminated agarose and Sepabeads). More than 80% of the proteins contained in crude extracts from Escherichia coli and Acetobacter turbidans have been strongly adsorbed on these porous materials at pH 5. This interaction was stronger than in conventional carboxymethyl cellulose (e.g., at pH 7 and 25 degrees C, all proteins previously adsorbed at pH 5 were released from carboxymethyl cellulose, whereas no protein was released from the new supports under similar conditions). Ionic exchange properties of such composites were strongly dependent on the size of the aspartic-dextran polymers as well as on the exact conditions of the covalent coating of the solids with the polymer (optimal conditions: 100 mg aspartic-dextran 20 000/(mL of support); room temperature). Finally, some industrially relevant enzymes (Kluyveromices lactis, Aspergillus oryzae, and Thermus sp. beta-galactosidases, Candida antarctica B lipase, and bovine pancreas trypsin and chymotrypsin) have been immobilized on these supports with very high activity recovery and immobilization rates. After enzyme inactivation, the enzyme can be fully desorbed from the support and the support could be reused for several cycles.

Advances in the design of new epoxy supports for enzyme immobilization–stabilization

Multipoint covalent immobilization of enzymes (through very short spacer arms) on support surfaces promotes a very interesting ‘rigidification’ of protein molecules. In this case, the relative positions of each residue of the enzyme involved in the immobilization process have to be preserved unchanged during any conformational change induced on the immobilized enzyme by any distorting agent (heat, organic solvents etc.). In this way, multipoint covalent immobilization should induce a very strong stabilization of immobilized enzymes. Epoxy-activated supports are able to chemically react with all nucleophile groups placed on the protein surface: lysine, histidine, cysteine, tyrosine etc. Besides, epoxy groups are very stable. This allows the performance of very long enzyme–support reactions, enabling us to get very intense multipoint covalent attachment. In this way, these epoxy supports seem to be very suitable to stabilize industrial enzymes by multipoint covalent attachment. However, epoxy groups exhibit a low intermolecular reactivity towards nucleophiles and hence the enzymes are not able to directly react with the epoxy supports. Thus a rapid physical adsorption of enzymes on the supports becomes a first step, followed by an additional rapid ‘intramolecular’ reaction between the already adsorbed enzyme and the activated support. In this situation, a suitable first orientation of the enzyme on the support (e.g. through regions that are very rich in nucleophiles) is obviously necessary to get a very intense additional multipoint covalent immobilization. The preparation of different ‘generations’ of epoxy supports and the design of different protocols to fully control the first interaction between enzymes and epoxy supports will be reviewed in this paper. Finally, the possibilities of a directed immobilization of mutated enzymes (change of an amino acid by cysteine on specific points of the protein surface) on tailor-made disulfide-epoxy supports will be discussed as an almost-ideal procedure to achieve very intense and very efficient rigidification of a desired region of industrial enzymes.

Immobilization of enzymes on heterofunctional epoxy supports

Immobilization of enzymes and proteins on activated supports permits the simplification of the reactor design and may be used to improve some enzyme properties. In this sense, supports containing epoxy groups seem to be useful to generate very intense multipoint covalent attachment with different nucleophiles placed on the surface of enzyme molecules (e.g., amino, thiol, hydroxyl groups). However, the intermolecular reaction between epoxy groups and soluble enzymes is extremely slow. To solve this problem, we have designed "tailor-made" heterofunctional epoxy supports. Using these, immobilization of enzymes is performed via a two-step process: (i) an initial physical or chemical intermolecular interaction of the enzyme surface with the new functional groups introduced on the support surface and (ii) a subsequent intense intramolecular multipoint covalent reaction between the nucleophiles of the already immobilized enzyme and the epoxy groups of the supports. The first immobilization may involve different enzyme regions, which will be further rigidified by multipoint covalent attachment. The design of some heterofunctional epoxy supports and the performance of the immobilization protocols are described here. The whole protocol to have an immobilized and stabilized enzyme could take from 3 days to 1 week.

Stabilization of enzymes by multipoint attachment via reversible immobilization on phenylboronic activated supports

In this work, we have used supports activated with m-amino-phenylboronic groups to "reversibly" immobilize proteins under very mild conditions. Most of the proteins contained in a crude extract from E. coli could be immobilized on Eupergit C-250 L activated with phenylboronic and then fully desorbed from the support by using mannitol or SDS. This suggested that the immobilization of the proteins on these supports was not only via sugars interaction, but also by other interaction/s, quite unspecific, that might be playing a key role in the immobilization of the proteins. Penicillin acylase from E. coli (PGA) was also immobilized in Eupergit C activated with m-amino-phenylboronic groups. The enzyme could be fully desorbed with mannitol immediately after being immobilized on the support. However, longer incubation times of the immobilized preparation caused a reduction of protein elution from the boronate support in presence of mannitol. Moreover, these immobilized preparations showed a higher stability in the presence of organic solvents than the soluble enzyme; the stability also improved when the incubation time was increased (to a factor of 100). By desorbing the weakest bound enzyme molecules, it was possible to correlate adsorption strength with stabilization; therefore, it seems that this effect was due to the rigidification of the enzyme via multipoint attachment on the support.

Use and engineering aspects of immobilized cells in biotechnology

A short review of the research in the past two years (1990-1991) on immobilized whole cells, such as microbial, plant, and animal cells, is presented including a discussion from an engineering point of view. Recent works concerning the intraparticle mass transfer effect on immobilized microbial cells by the authors and their co-workers are also introduced. Finally, future prospects of the immobilized cell system will be discussed.

Multifunctional epoxy supports: a new tool to improve the covalent immobilization of proteins. The promotion of physical adsorptions of proteins on the supports before their covalent linkage

Multifunctional supports containing epoxy groups are here proposed as a second generation of activated supports for covalent immobilization of enzymes following the epoxy chemistry on any type of support (hydrophobic or hydrophilic ones) under very mild experimental conditions (e.g., low ionic strength, neutral pH values, and low temperatures). These multifunctional supports have been easily prepared by modifying a small fraction (10-20%) of the epoxy groups contained in commercial epoxy supports. In this way, additional groups that were able to physically adsorb proteins (e.g., cationic or anionic groups, metal chelate, phenyl boronate) are generated on the support surface. The covalent immobilization of proteins on these supports proceeds via their initial physical adsorption on the supports (via different structural features). Then, "intramolecular" covalent linkages between some nucleophilic groups of the adsorbed enzyme (e.g., amino, thiol, or hydroxy groups) and the dense layer of nearby epoxy groups on the support are established. This two-step covalent immobilization dramatically improves the very low reactivity of epoxy groups toward nonadsorbed proteins. In this way, all other relevant practical advantages of epoxy groups for protein immobilization (their high stability and their ability to form very strong linkages with several nucleophilic enzyme residues with minimal chemical modification) can be an object of universal exploitation. The use of these new multifunctional supports exhibits important advantages regarding immobilization of enzymes previously adsorbed on hydrophobic homofunctional epoxy supports: (i) hydrophilic supports can also be used for immobilization of industrial enzymes; (ii) immobilization can also be carried out at low ionic strength; (iii) every protein contained in crude extracts from Escherichia coli and Acetobacter turbidans can be immobilized by sequentially using a set of different supports; (iv) in most cases, each enzyme has been immobilized on different supports, orientated through different structural features and very likely involving different areas of its surface. For example, three industrial enzymes (penicillin G acylase, lipase, and beta-galactosidase) could be immobilized through different strategies yielding immobilized derivatives with very different activities. The best derivatives preserved 75-100% of activity corresponding to the soluble enzymes used for immobilization, while in some cases a particular immobilization protocol promoted the full inactivation of the enzyme.

Reversible enzyme immobilization via a very strong and nondistorting ionic adsorption on support-polyethylenimine composites

New tailor-made anionic exchange resins have been prepared, based on films of large polyethylenimine polymers (e.g., MW 25,000) completely coating, via covalent immobilization, the surface of different porous supports (agarose, silica, polymeric resins). Most proteins contained in crude extracts from different sources have been very strongly adsorbed on them. Ionic exchange properties of such composites strongly depend on the size of polyethylenimine polymers as well as on the exact conditions of the covalent coating of the solids with the polymer. On the contrary, similar coating protocols yield similar matrices by using different porous supports as starting material. For example, 77% of all proteins contained in crude extracts from Escherichia coli were adsorbed, at low ionic strength, on the best matrices, and less than 15% of the adsorbed proteins were eluted from the support in the presence of 0.3 M NaCl. Under these conditions, 100% of the adsorbed proteins were eluted from conventional DEAE supports. Such polyethylenimine-support composites were also very suitable to perform very strong and nondistorting reversible immobilization of industrial enzymes. For example, lipase from Candida rugosa (CRL), beta-galactosidase from Aspergillus oryzae and D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) from Rhodotorula gracilis, were adsorbed on such matrices in a few minutes at pH 7.0 and 4 degrees C. Immobilized enzymes preserved 100% of catalytic activity and remained fully immobilized in 0.2 M NaCl. In addition to that, CRL and DAAO were highly stabilized upon immobilization. Stabilization of DAAO, a dimeric enzyme, seems to be due to the involvement of both enzyme subunits in the ionic adsorption.

Stabilization of cellobiase by covalent coupling to soluble polysaccharide

Cellobiase from Aspergillus niger was glycosylated by covalent coupling to cyanogen bromide activated dextran. The conjugated enzyme retained 62% of the original specific activity exhibited by the native cellobiase. The optimum pH as well as the pH stability of the conjugated form remain almost the same as for the native enzyme. Compared to the native enzyme, the conjugated form exhibited a higher optimal reaction temperature and energy of activation, a higher K(m) (Michaelis constant) and lower Vmax (maximal reaction rate), and improved thermal stability. The thermal deactivation of the native and conjugated cellobiase obeyed the first-order kinetics. The calculated half-life values of heat inactivation at 60, 70 and 80 degrees C was 10.7, 6.25, and 4.05 h, respectively, whereas at these temperatures the native enzyme was less stable (half-life of 3.5, 1.69, and 0.83 h, respectively). The deactivation rate constant at 80 degrees C for the conjugated cellobiase is about 7.9 x 10(-2) h-1, which is lower than that of the native enzyme (36.0 x 10(-2) h-1). The activation energy for denaturation of the native enzyme is about 10.58 kcal/mol, which is 7.25 kcal/mol lower than that of the conjugated enzyme. The effect of different surfactants and some metal ions on the activity of the conjugated cellobiase has been investigated.