Enzyme Conformation Influences the Performance of Lipase‐powered Nanomotors

Abstract

Enzyme‐powered micro/nanomotors have myriads of potential applications in various areas. To efficiently reach those applications, it is necessary and critical to understand the fundamental aspects affecting the motion dynamics. Herein, we explored the impact of enzyme orientation on the performance of lipase‐powered nanomotors by tuning the lipase immobilization strategies. The influence of the lipase orientation and lid conformation on substrate binding and catalysis was analyzed using molecular dynamics simulations. Besides, the motion performance indicates that the hydrophobic binding (via OTES) represents the best orienting strategy, providing 48.4 % and 95.4 % increase in diffusion coefficient compared to hydrophilic binding (via APTES) and Brownian motion (no fuel), respectively (with C[triacetin] of 100 mm). This work provides vital evidence for the importance of immobilization strategy and corresponding enzyme orientation for the catalytic activity and in turn, the motion performance of nanomotors, and is thus helpful to future applications.

Enzyme-Powered Liquid Metal Nanobots Endowed with Multiple Biomedical Functions

“…12 Enzymes, biological catalysts, have emerged as an alternative to catalytically propelled MNBs aimed at biomedical purposes by virtue of their high biocompatibility. 13−16 To date, many enzymes including catalase, 17 glucose oxidase, 18,19 urease, 20−22 lipase, 23,24 acetylcholinesterase, 25 trypsin, 26 and their combi-nations 27,28 have been used as nanosized bioengines for propelling MNBs. Previously reported enzymatic MNBs have been explored for targeted drug delivery by responding to external stimuli (pH, 29 temperature, 30 oxidant, 31 etc.)…”

“…and overcoming multiple physiological and pathological barriers, 32−34 to improve therapeutic effects. Fundamental aspects that affect the motion performance, including the poisoning and reactivation of enzymes, 20 the quantity and distribution of enzymes, 35 the flexibility near the active site of different enzymes, and the conformation of enzymes, 24,25 To date, biomedical MNBs have been challenged by the integration of imaging-guided tracking and therapeutic functions, which are critical to monitor and control the behaviors of MNBs in vivo and further allow preclinical and clinical trials. So far, MNBs have been preliminarily investigated for imaging-guided tracking and therapy to advance this field.…”

Polymeric Micro/Nanocarriers and Motors for Cargo Transport and Phototriggered Delivery

“…Micro/nanotechnology manipulates matter at the micro/nanoscale, resulting in enhanced properties concerning the bulk material counterparts, which are exploited in multipurpose assemblies, with significant impact in various fields [1][2][3]. For example, engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, pharmacy, and biomedical sciences converge in the development of static (S) and dynamic (D) PCs, which have stimulated the scientific community's interest in recent years [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. SD-PCs can be designed to exhibit biocompatibility [11,12], reproducibility [13,14], and malleability [15,16] in various morphologies [17,18], providing great versatility [19,20].…”

A Practical Guide to Analyzing and Reporting the Movement of Nanoscale Swimmers

“…One can either calculate the instantaneous speed V by dividing the displacement (∆L) by the time interval (∆t) (for example see ref. 53,[71][72][73][74]76,83 ), or extract the ballistic speed V or diffusivity D from the MSD (for example see ref 54,60,63,69,72,[74][75][76]78,80,81,83,[86][87][88][89][90]93,95 ). Caution is needed with either method to avoid artifactual claims, as we detail below.…”

“…To prevent this misinterpretation, the original tracking data must be drift-corrected (see description and methods introduced above). A straightforward way to check whether drift has been successfully corrected is to plot the corrected trajectories of a few nanoswimmers within the same frame, and see if they diffuse independently (see ref 63,67 for good examples) or all in the same direction. The above principles and operations are illustrated in Fig.…”