Encapsulating enzymes for better medicines
ChemSci Pick of the Week
Scientists in Australia have developed a technique by which delicate enzymes can cover themselves in a protective coating, making them much more useful in medicines and chemical synthesis.
Proteins are the internal machinery of all living organisms – they do most of the work in and around biological cells, and regulate the body’s tissues and organs.
Enzymes are a special type of protein, and they have the job of enabling or speeding up chemical reactions within the body. This makes them an incredibly useful tool in medicine, and also outside the body for the production of many chemicals that we use in our everyday life.
Their weak spot, however, is that they aren’t designed to survive outside the body and tend to decompose if not kept at the correct temperature and acidity. This presents a challenge if we want to use them in medicine or synthesis.
"Enzymes are some of the most selective and efficient catalysts – reactors to facilitate chemical synthesis", explains Christian Doonan from the University of Adelaide, Australia. "However, due to their fragility they need to be protected from the harsher solvents and non-physiological conditions used in industrial synthesis."
One strategy for overcoming this problem is to encapsulate the enzyme in something more resilient. Chemical scientists often use a porous, crystalline material called a metal-organic framework (MOF) for this purpose. The challenge is how to get the enzyme into the MOF shell. Certain proteins have a particular structure which means that, when they come into contact with the MOF, the MOF crystallises into a shell around the enzyme. However, until now this has only worked for specific proteins with specific properties.
Now, Christian and his team have developed a simple modification to make this work for any protein. "The research shows that a simple chemical modification to the surface of a protein can reliably induce crystallisation of a protective MOF shell around the protein and stabilise it when exposed to inhospitable conditions", he says.
Christian explains how this encapsulation technique could make it easier for enzymes to be used in medicines. "Proteins denature under elevated temperatures. However, when tightly encapsulated within the MOF crystal the protein maintains its structure when heated. Thus, transport of proteins could be carried out efficiently and inexpensively without the need to maintain low temperatures."
The technique could also be used for evidence preservation in forensics labs, where biological material is often stored for long periods.
This article is free to read: Natasha Maddigan et al., Chem. Sci. 2018, DOI: 10.1039/C8SC00825F
ChemSci Pick of the Week
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