Improvement of enzyme activity, stability and selectivity via immobilization techniques

In this tutorial review, an overview of the why, what and how of enzyme immobilisation for use in biocatalysis is presented. The importance of biocatalysis in the context of green and sustainable chemicals manufacture is discussed and the necessity for immobilisation of enzymes as a key enabling technology for practical and commercial viability is emphasised. The underlying reasons for immobilisation are the need to improve the stability and recyclability of the biocatalyst compared to the free enzyme. The lower risk of product contamination with enzyme residues and low or no allergenicity are further advantages of immobilised enzymes. Methods for immobilisation are divided into three categories: adsorption on a carrier (support), encapsulation in a carrier, and cross-linking (carrier-free). General considerations regarding immobilisation, regardless of the method used, are immobilisation yield, immobilisation efficiency, activity recovery, enzyme loading (wt% in the biocatalyst) and the physical properties, e.g. particle size and density, hydrophobicity and mechanical robustness of the immobilisate, i.e. the immobilised enzyme as a whole (enzyme + support). The choice of immobilisate is also strongly dependent on the reactor configuration used, e.g. stirred tank, fixed bed, fluidised bed, and the mode of downstream processing. Emphasis is placed on relatively recent developments, such as the use of novel supports such as mesoporous silicas, hydrogels, and smart polymers, and cross-linked enzyme aggregates (CLEAs).

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Enzyme immobilisation in biocatalysis : Why, what and how

Immobilization is often the key to optimizing the operational performance of an enzyme in industrial processes, particularly for use in non-aqueous media. Different methods for the immobilization of enzymes are critically reviewed. The methods are divided into three main categories, viz. (i) binding to a prefabricated support (carrier), (ii) entrapment in organic or inorganic polymer matrices, and (iii) cross-linking of enzyme molecules. Emphasis is placed on relatively recent developments, such as the use of novel supports, e.g., mesoporous silicas, hydrogels, and smart polymers, novel entrapment methods and cross-linked enzyme aggregates (CLEAs).

http://largens.com/biochemlab/peroxidase2.pdf

Enzyme immobilization: The quest for optimum performance

Electrogenerated chemiluminescence (also called electrochemiluminescence and abbreviated ECL) is the process whereby species generated at electrodes undergo high-energy electron-transfer reactions to form excited states that emit light. The first detailed ECL studies were described by Hercules and Bard et al. in the mid-1960s, although reports concerning light emission during electrolysis date back to the 1920s by Harvey. After about 40 years study, ECL has now become a very powerful analytical technique and been widely used in the areas of, for example, immunoassay, food and water testing, and biowarfare agent detection. ECL has also been successfully exploited as a detector of flow injection analysis (FIA), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), capillary electrophoresis, and micro total analysis (μTAS). Figure 1 illustrates a time line of various events in the development of ECL. A literature survey using SciFinder Scholar reveals that more than 2000 journal articles, book chapters, and patents on various topics of ECL have been published. The overall number of publications, as shown in Figure 2, has increased exponentially over the past 20 years, of which 40–50% were biorelated. Similar amounts of ECL papers could be also found from the Thomson ISI Web of Science as well as † Telephone (601) 266 4716; fax (601) 266 6075; e-mail wujian.miao@ usm.edu. Wujian Miao received his undergraduate diploma in chemistry from Nantong University (Nantong, China) in 1982, his M.Sc. degree in analytical chemistry from Zhongshan University (Guangzhou, China, with Jinyuan Mo) in 1991, and his Ph.D. degree in electrochemistry from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia, with Alan M. Bond) in 2000. He then served as a Research Scientist in CSIRO (Melbourne, Australia), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin with Allen J. Bard in 2001. Since 2004 he has served as an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Electrogenerated Chemiluminescence and Its Biorelated Applications

Enzyme biocatalysis plays a very relevant role in the development of many chemical industries, e.g., energy, food or fine chemistry. To achieve this goal, enzyme immobilization is a usual pre-requisite as a solution to get reusable biocatalysts and thus decrease the price of this relatively expensive compound. However, a proper immobilization technique may permit far more than to get a reusable enzyme; it may be used to improve enzyme performance by improving some enzyme limitations: enzyme purity, stability (including the possibility of enzyme reactivation), activity, specificity, selectivity, or inhibitions. Among the diverse immobilization techniques, the use of pre-existing supports to immobilize enzymes (via covalent or physical coupling) and the immobilization without supports [enzyme crosslinked aggregates (CLEAs) or crystals (CLECs)] are the most used or promising ones. This paper intends to give the advantages and disadvantages of the different existing immobilization strategies to solve the different aforementioned enzyme limitations. Moreover, the use of nanoparticles as immobilization supports is achieving an increasing importance, as the nanoparticles versatility increases and becomes more accessible to the researchers. We will also discuss here some of the advantages and drawbacks of these non porous supports compared to conventional porous supports. Although there are no universal optimal solutions for all cases, we will try to give some advice to select the optimal strategy for each particular enzyme and process, considering the enzyme properties, nature of the process and of the substrate. In some occasions the selection will be compulsory, for example due to the nature of the substrate. In other cases the optimal biocatalyst may depend on the company requirements (e.g., volumetric activity, enzyme stability, etc).

Potential of Different Enzyme Immobilization Strategies to Improve Enzyme Performance

Improved stabilization of chemically aminated enzymes via multipoint covalent attachment on glyoxyl supports

Co-aggregation of Enzymes and Polyethyleneimine: A Simple Method To Prepare Stable and Immobilized Derivatives of Glutaryl Acylase

Preparation of a robust biocatalyst of D-amino acid oxidase on sepabeads supports using the glutaraldehyde crosslinking method

We have investigated the use of the glutaraldehyde chemistry to stabilize glutaryl acylase (GAC). GAC has been immobilized on different aminated supports (ethylendiamine (EA) or polyethylenimine (PEI) coated supports) and the effect of the treatment with glutaraldehyde on both stability and activity has been analyzed. It was determined that immobilization on aminated supports increased the enzyme stability, and that this stabilization increased with the size of the polyethylenimine. The treatment with glutaraldehyde presented a low impact on the enzyme activity (activity recoveries were over 80%) and greatly improved the enzyme stability. A similar treatment using the enzyme immobilized on supports that cannot react with glutaraldehyde did not give rise to stabilization, suggesting that this stabilization was due to a reaction between the enzyme and the support through the glutaraldehyde chemistry. Curiously, the larger the PEI, the lower the stabilization observed. Therefore, final differences between different immobilized GAC preparations treated with glutaraldehyde were not very significant. Other variables, such as glutaraldehyde concentration, were found to have a great impact on the final results (optimal concentration was in the range 0.5–0.65%). After optimization, the stability of the best immobilized GAC was over 250-fold higher than that of the soluble enzyme, retaining 90% of the immobilized activity and much more stable than commercially available GAC preparations or the enzyme immobilized on pre-activated supports. The simple preparation of this immobilized GAC, its good activity and stability, make this strategy very suitable for its industrial implementation.

Noelia Alonso

Papers

Improved stabilization of chemically aminated enzymes via multipoint covalent attachment on glyoxyl supports

Co-aggregation of Enzymes and Polyethyleneimine: A Simple Method To Prepare Stable and Immobilized Derivatives of Glutaryl Acylase

Preparation of a robust biocatalyst of D-amino acid oxidase on sepabeads supports using the glutaraldehyde crosslinking method

Immobilization and stabilization of glutaryl acylase on aminated sepabeads supports by the glutaraldehyde crosslinking method