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.     

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.     

Purification, immobilization, and characterization of a specific lipase from Staphylococcus warneri EX17 by enzyme fractionating via adsorption on different hydrophobic supports

Staphylococcus warneri strain EX17 produces three lipases with different molecular weights of 28, 30, and 45 kDa. The 45 kDa fraction (SWL-45) has been purified from crude protein extracts by one chromatographic step based on the selective adsorption of this lipase by interfacial activation on different hydrophobic supports at low ionic strength. The adsorption of SWL-45 on octyl-Sepharose increased the enzyme activity by 60%, but the other lipases were also adsorbed on this support. Using butyl-Toyopearl, which is a lesser hydrophobic support, the purification factor was close to 20, and the only protein band detected on the sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide electrophoresis analysis gel was that corresponding to the SWL-45, which could be easily desorbed from the support by incubation with triton X-100, producing a purified enzyme. SWL-45 was immobilized under very mild conditions on cyanogen bromide Sepharose, showing similar activities and stability as for its soluble form but without intermolecular interaction. The effects of different detergents over the activity of the immobilized SWL-45 were analyzed, which was hyperactivated by factors of 1.3 and 2.5 with 0.01% Tween 80 and 0.1% Triton X-100, respectively, while ionic detergents produced detrimental effects on the enzyme activity even at very low concentrations. Optimal reaction conditions and the effect of other additives on the enzyme activity were also investigated.     

Development of sensors for direct detection of organophosphates. Part I: Immobilization, characterization and stabilization of acetylcholinesterase and organophosphate hydrolase on silica supports

Biosensors for organophosphates in solution may be constructed by monitoring the activity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) or organophosphate hydrolase (OPH) immobilized to a variety of microsensor platforms. The area available for enzyme immobilization is small (< 1 mm2) for microsensors. In order to construct microsensors with increased surface area for enzyme immobilization, we used a sol-gel process to create highly porous and stable silica matrices. Surface porosity of sol-gel coated surfaces was characterized using scanning electron microscopy; pore structure was found to be very similar to that of commercially available porous silica supports. Based upon this analysis, porous and non-porous silica beads were used as model substrates of sol-gel coated and uncoated sensor surfaces. Two different covalent chemistries were used to immobilize AChE and OPH to these porous and non-porous silica beads. The first chemistry used amine-silanization of silica followed by enzyme attachment using the homobifunctional linker glutaraldehyde. The second chemistry used sulfhydryl-silanization followed by enzyme attachment using the heterobifunctional linker N-gamma-maleimidobutyryloxy succinimide ester (GMBS). Surfaces were characterized in terms of total enzyme immobilized, total and specific enzyme activity, and long term stability of enzyme activity. Amine derivitization followed by glutaraldehyde linking yielded supports with greater amounts of immobilized enzyme and activity. Use of porous supports not only yielded greater amounts of immobilized enzyme and activity, but also significantly improved long term stability of enzyme activity. Enzyme was also immobilized to sol-gel coated glass slides. The mass of immobilized enzyme increased linearly with thickness of coating. However, immobilized enzyme activity saturated at a porous silica thickness of approximately 800 nm.     

The co-operative effect of physical and covalent protein adsorption on heterofunctional supports

It has been found that the enzymes penicillin G acylase from Escherichia coli (PGA) and lipase from Bacillus thermocatenulatus (BTL) did not significantly adsorb on highly activated amino-agarose beads at pH 7 (a support where 85–90% of a crude extract of proteins become adsorbed). Moreover, it has been found that these enzymes do not covalently immobilize on highly activated epoxy-agarose beads at pH 7. However, both enzymes slowly immobilize on heterofunctional supports having a high density of amino–epoxy groups. The immobilized enzymes retain a high percentage of activity (more than 90% for PGA and 60% for BTL). On the other hand, the immobilization of a crude extract of proteins on amino–epoxy supports under conditions where only a limited protein ionic exchange was permitted (by using high ionic strength or lowly activated supports), also permitted a similar high immobilization yield of the proteins. Similarly, glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) and β-galactosidase from Thermus thermophilus can be fully immobilized under conditions where less than 20% of these enzymes can be ionically exchanged in the aminated support. The results suggested that the percentage of proteins that may be physically adsorbed on the support becomes irreversibly immobilized by the covalent reaction between the nucleophilic groups in the protein surface and the very near epoxy groups of the support (in an almost intramolecular reaction). Thus, using these supports, it is possible to immobilize almost all the proteins by anionic exchange, that is, the area with the highest density in anionic groups. In many cases, this region could not correspond to the protein regions usually utilized to immobilize proteins. This way, it is possible to achieve, in a very simple fashion and without modifying the protein, new orientations of some immobilized enzymes and proteins.     

Reversible immobilization of invertase on Sepabeads coated with polyethyleneimine: optimization of the biocatalyst's stability

Invertase from S. cerevisiae has been immobilized by ionic adsorption on Sepabeads fully coated with PEI. The enzyme was strongly adsorbed on the support (no desorption of the invertase was found under conditions in which all of the enzyme was released from conventional anionic exchanger supports (e.g., DEAE-agarose)). Nevertheless, the enzyme could still be desorbed after its inactivation, and new fresh enzyme could be adsorbed on the supports without detrimental effects on enzyme loading. This is a multimeric enzyme, its minimal oligomerization active state being the dimer, but under certain conditions of pH and concentration it may give larger multimers. Very interestingly, results suggested that the adsorption of the enzyme on this large and flexible polymeric bed was able to freeze some of the different oligomeric structures of the enzyme. Thus, we have found that the enzyme immobilized at certain pH values (pH 8.5) and high enzyme concentration, in which the main enzyme structure is the tetramer, was more stable than immobilized preparations produced in conditions under which oligomerization was not favorable (dimers at low enzyme concentration) or it was too high (e.g., hexamers-octamers at low pH value). The optimal enzyme preparation remained fully active after a 15-day incubation at 50 degrees C and pH 4.5 (conditions of standard industrial use) and presented an optimal temperature approximately 5 degrees C higher than that of soluble enzyme.     

Immobilization of lipase on a new inorganic ceramics support, toyonite, and the reactivity and enantioselectivity of the immobilized lipase

A porous ceramics support, Toyonite 200-M (TN-M), for the immobilization of lipases was prepared hydrothermally from the minerals of kaolinite. Compared with some other commercial solid supports, the TN-M one exhibited better stability and higher selectivity for lipase proteins, and lipase PS (Pseudomonas cepacia) immobilized on the ceramics support showed higher reactivity for organic substrates than the free crude enzyme.     

Mixed ion exchange supports as useful ion exchangers for protein purification: purification of penicillin G acylase from Escherichia coli

A support having similar amounts of carboxymethyl and amino groups has been prepared and evaluated as an ion exchanger. It has been found that this support was able to adsorb a high amount of protein from a crude extract of proteins (approximately 55%) at pH 5. Moreover, it was able to adsorb approximately 60% of the protein that did not become adsorbed on supports bearing just one kind of ionic groups. The use of divalent cations reinforced the adsorption of proteins on these supports. These results suggest that the adsorption of proteins on supports bearing almost neutral charge is not driven by the existence of opposite charges between the adsorbent and the biomacromolecule but just by the possibility of forming a high number of enzyme-support ionic bonds. This support has been used to purify the enzyme penicillin G acylase (PGA) from Escherichia coli. PGA was not significantly adsorbed at any pH value on either amino- or carboxyl-activated supports, while it can be fully adsorbed at pH 5 on this new carboxyl-amino matrix. Thus, we have been able to almost fully purify PGA from crude extracts with a very high yield by using these new supports.     

Simple and efficient immobilization of lipase B from Candida antarctica on porous styrene-divinylbenzene beads

Two commercial porous styrene-divinylbenzene beads (Diaion HP20LX and MCI GEL CHP20P) have been evaluated as supports to immobilize lipase B from Candida antarctica (CALB). MCI GEL CHP20P rapidly immobilized the enzyme, permitting a very high loading capacity: around 110 mg CALB/wet g of support compared to the 50 mg obtained using decaoctyl Sepabeads. Although enzyme specificity of the enzyme immobilized on different supports was quite altered by the support used in the immobilization, specific activity of the enzyme immobilized on MCI GEL CHP20P was always higher than those found using decaoctyl Sepabeads for all assayed substrates. Thus, a CALB biocatalyst having 3-8 folds (depending on the substrate) higher activity/wet gram of support than the commercial Novozym 435 was obtained. Half-live of CAL-Diaion HP20LX at 60 °C was 2-3 higher than the one of Novozym 435, it was 30-40 higher in the presence of 50% acetonitrile and it was around 100 folds greater in the presence of 10 M hydrogen peroxide.Results indicate that styrene-divinylbenzene supports may be promising alternatives as supports to immobilize CALB.     

The adsorption of multimeric enzymes on very lowly activated supports involves more enzyme subunits: Stabilization of a glutamate dehydrogenase from Thermus thermophilus by immobilization on heterofunctional supports

Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) from Thermus thermophilus is a homotrimeric enzyme that tends to dissociate at acidic pH values. GDH is readily adsorbed on highly activated anionic exchangers (HAAE), but hardly adsorbed on lowly activated supports (LAAE) or on highly activated epoxy supports. When using amino-epoxy supports, GDH immobilized on HAAE-epoxy and more slowly on LAAE-epoxy supports. Both immobilized biocatalysts were incubated at pH 10 for different times to increase the multipoint covalent attachment. LAAE-epoxy-GDH was stable at pH 4 and 25 °C, the enzyme stability did not depend on the enzyme concentration and did not release any subunit to the supernatant, in opposition to the results obtained using HAAE-epoxy supports. The general application of this strategy to stabilize multimeric enzymes was verified by immobilizing a crude protein extract. It seems that proteins adsorb on LAAE by the larger region of their surface (that is the one that involves the highest number of enzyme subunits), since it is the only area large enough to permit a multipoint ionic exchange on this LAAE. On the contrary, using HAAE, some proteins may become adsorbed by clusters that were rich in anionic groups and located in a corner of the multimer, involving only some of the subunits in the enzyme immobilization. That way, a careful design of the design of the support permits to take full advantage of the immobilization on heterofunctional supports.     

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.     

Preparation of inert magnetic nano-particles for the directed immobilization of antibodies

Various activated supports (cyanogen bromide, glutaraldehyde, epoxy-chelates, primary amino) were evaluated for the immobilization of IgG anti-horseradish peroxidase. Cyanogen bromide and glutaraldehyde supports greatly reduced the recognition capacity of the antigen, probably due to the incorrect orientation of the antibody on the support. Hetero-functional epoxy-chelate and immobilization by the sugar chain on primary amino groups had little effect on high recognition of the antigen (near to the theoretically expected value). However, the immobilization by the sugar chain resulted in a higher adsorption rate of horseradish peroxidase, possibly due to a favourable orientation on a flexible spacer arm). Antibodies immobilized on aminated surfaces showed two major drawbacks. Firstly, the biological activity of the immobilized antibody sharply decreased over several days when stored at low ionic strength, although this effect could be partially reversed by incubation at high ionic strength. Secondly, a high level of non-specific proteins adsorption on the support surface was observed. Both problems could be successfully resolved by controlling the coating of the support with aldehyde-aspartic-dextran. We propose that the loss of biological activity was related to the ionic adsorption of the immobilized antibody on the support surface, leading to a blocking of the recognition areas. This optimized protocol was applied to the immobilization of IgG anti-horseradish peroxidase from rabbit on magnetic nano-particles. A 10 microg preparation of nano-particles was able to capture more than 75% of the 0.1 microgram of recombinant horseradish peroxidase present in 10 L of crude protein extract (1g/L) from Escherichia coli.     

Immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B: Hydration, stripping off and application in ring opening polyester synthesis

This work reviews the stripping off, role of water molecules in activity, and flexibility of immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB). Employment of CALB in ring opening polyester synthesis emphasizing on a polylactide is discussed in detail. Execution of enzymes in place of inorganic catalysts is the most green alternative for sustainable and environment friendly synthesis of products on an industrial scale. Robust immobilization and consequently performance of enzyme is the essential objective of enzyme application in industry. Water bound to the surface of an enzyme (contact class of water molecules) is inevitable for enzyme performance; it controls enzyme dynamics via flexibility changes and has intensive influence on enzyme activity. The value of pH during immobilization of CALB plays a critical role in fixing the active conformation of an enzyme. Comprehensive selection of support and protocol can develop a robust immobilized enzyme thus enhancing its performance. Organic solvents with a log P value higher than four are more suitable for enzymatic catalysis as these solvents tend to strip away very little of the enzyme surface bound water molecules. Alternatively ionic liquid can work as a more promising reaction media. Covalent immobilization is an exclusively reliable technique to circumvent the leaching of enzymes and to enhance stability. Activated polystyrene nanoparticles can prove to be a practical and economical support for chemical immobilization of CALB. In order to reduce the E-factor for the synthesis of biodegradable polymers; enzymatic ring opening polyester synthesis (eROPS) of cyclic monomers is a more sensible route for polyester synthesis. Synergies obtained from ionic liquids and immobilized enzyme can be much effective eROPS.     

Immobilization and characterization of a thermostable β-galactosidase from a thermophilic anaerobe on a porous ceramic support

A thermostable -galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.23) from a thermophilic anaerobe, strain NA10, was purified from the crude extract of the Escherichia coli transformant harboring the lacN gene. The purified enzyme was physically and covalently immobilized to a porous ceramic support, SM-10. Among the supports tested, the highest residual activity after 3 h incubation at 70° C was obtained when the enzyme was covalently immobilized to silanized SM-10 with 3-[2-(2-amino-ethylaminoethylamino)propyl]trimethoxysilane. The amount of the enzyme immobilized was about 60 mg/g of this support. The enzymatic properties were almost the same as those of the free enzyme. The half-life of this immobilized enzyme was estimated to be approximately 450 h at the pasteurization temperature (65° C).On leave from Aichi Institute of Technology, Yakusa-cho, Toyota 470-03, Japan Correspondence to: T. Saito     

A novel support for the immobilization of lipase and the effects of the details of its preparation on the hydrolysis of triacylglycerides

Summary The lipase from Candida cylindracea was immobilized by its adsorption on the internal surface of hydrophobic microporous poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) supports prepared by the concentrated emulsion polymerization method. The prepared supports have a surface area of the order of 200 m²/g. The immobilized enzyme catalyst is used for the hydrolysis of triacylglycerides. The effects of the amounts of surfactant and divinylbenzene used in the preparation of the hydrophobic support on the adsorption capacity for lipase and on the activity of the immobilized lipase have been investigated. The activity of the immobilized enzyme per enzyme molecule can be higher than that of the free lipase.     

A novel heterofunctional epoxy-amino sepabeads for a new enzyme immobilization protocol: immobilization-stabilization of beta-galactosidase from Aspergillus oryzae

The properties of a new and commercially available amino-epoxy support (amino-epoxy-Sepabeads) have been compared to conventional epoxy supports to immobilize enzymes, using the beta-galactosidase from Aspergillus oryzae as a model enzyme. The new support has a layer of epoxy groups over a layer of ethylenediamine that is covalently bound to the support. This support has both a great anionic exchanger strength and a high density of epoxy groups. Epoxy supports require the physical adsorption of the proteins onto the support before the covalent binding of the enzyme to the epoxy groups. Using conventional supports the immobilization rate is slow, because the adsorption is of hydrophobic nature, and immobilization must be performed using high ionic strength (over 0.5 M sodium phosphate) and a support with a fairly hydrophobic nature. Using the new support, immobilization may be performed at moderately low ionic strength, it occurs very rapidly, and it is not necessary to use a hydrophobic support. Therefore, this support should be specially recommended for immobilization of enzymes that cannot be submitted to high ionic strength. Also, both supports may be expected to yield different orientations of the proteins on the support, and that may result in some advantages in specific cases. For example, the model enzyme became almost fully inactivated when using the conventional support, while it exhibited an almost intact activity after immobilization on the new support. Furthermore, enzyme stability was significantly improved by the immobilization on this support (by more than a 12-fold factor), suggesting the promotion of some multipoint covalent attachment between the enzyme and the support (in fact the enzyme adsorbed on an equivalent cationic support without epoxy groups was even slightly less stable than the soluble enzyme).     

Adsorption of Various Enzymes Onto Talcs Scope and Limitations of This New Immobilization System

The adsorption of various enzymes (proteases, lipases and peroxidases) onto the surface of talc (a hydrophobic support) and non- talc materials was investigated. In general, adsorption was favored by the hydrophobicity of the support. We found little evidence for the ionic interactions that characterize adsorption onto mineral supports (clays, porous glasses). Modification of the hydrophobic-hydrophilic balance of the talc support produced new immobilized biocatalysts with high enzyme activity (both lipases and horseradish peroxidase). This represents the first example of this type of talc-protein interaction.     

Stabilization of thymidine phosphorylase from Escherichia coli by immobilization and post immobilization techniques

Homodimeric thymidine phosphorylase from Escherichia coli (TP, E.C. 2.4.2.4) was immobilized on solid support with the aim to have a stable and recyclable biocatalyst for nucleoside synthesis. Immobilization by ionic adsorption on amine-functionalized agarose and Sepabeads^® resulted in a very high activity recovery (>85%). To prevent undesirable leakage of immobilized enzyme away from the support, the ionic preparations were cross-linked with aldehyde dextran (MW 20 kDa) and the influence of the dextran oxidation degree on the resulting biocatalyst activity was evaluated. Although in all cases the percentage of expressed activity after immobilization drastically decreased (≤25%), this procedure allowed to obtain an active catalyst which resulted up to 6-fold and 3-fold more stable than the soluble (non immobilized) enzyme and the just adsorbed (non cross-linked) counterpart, respectively, at pH 10 and 37 °C. No release of the enzyme from the support could be observed. Covalent immobilization on aldehyde or epoxy supports was generally detrimental for enzyme activity. Optimal TP preparation, achieved by immobilization onto Sepabeads^® coated with polyethyleneimine and cross-linked, was successfully used for the one-pot synthesis of 5-fluoro-2′-deoxyuridine starting from 2′-deoxyuridine or thymidine (20 mM) and 5-fluorouracil (10 mM). In both cases, the reaction proceeded at the same rate (3 μmol min⁻¹) affording 62% conversion in 1 h.