Hyaluronic Acid Allows Enzyme Immobilization for Applications in Biomedicine

Abstract

Enzymes are proteins that control the efficiency and effectiveness of biological reactions and systems, as well as of engineered biomimetic processes. This review highlights current applications of a diverse range of enzymes for biofuel production, plastics, and chemical waste management, as well as for detergent, textile, and food production and preservation industries respectively. Challenges regarding the transposition of enzymes from their natural purpose and environment into synthetic practice are discussed. For example, temperature and pH-induced enzyme fragilities, short shelf life, low-cost efficiency, poor user-controllability, and subsequently insufficient catalytic activity were shown to decrease pertinence and profitability in large-scale production considerations. Enzyme immobilization was shown to improve and expand upon enzyme usage within a profit and impact-oriented commercial world and through enzyme-material and interfaces integration. With particular focus on the growing biomedical market, examples of enzyme immobilization within or onto hyaluronic acid (HA)-based complexes are discussed as a definable way to improve upon and/or make possible the next generation of medical undertakings. As a polysaccharide formed in every living organism, HA has proven beneficial in biomedicine for its high biocompatibility and controllable biodegradability, viscoelasticity, and hydrophilicity. Complexes developed with this molecule have been utilized to selectively deliver drugs to a desired location and at a desired rate, improve the efficiency of tissue regeneration, and serve as a viable platform for biologically accepted sensors. In similar realms of enzyme immobilization, HA’s ease in crosslinking allows the molecule to user-controllably enhance the design of a given platform in terms of both chemical and physical characteristics to thus best support successful and sustained enzyme usage. Such examples do not only demonstrate the potential of enzyme-based applications but further, emphasize future market trends and accountability.

Advanced Biomedical Applications of Multifunctional Natural and Synthetic Biomaterials

“…Hyaluronic acid, a linear anionic polysaccharide, is a major macromolecular component of the extracellular matrix in the most connective tissues. Due to its biocompatible, biodegradable and bioresorbable nature, limited immunogenicity, recognized by cell surface receptors, its flexible and unique viscoelasticity properties, hyaluronic acid has been extensively studied in recent years for biomedical applications [162][163][164]. This biopolymer is useful in medicine for the treatment of diverse pathological situations such as arthritis but is also used in drug delivery and tissue engineering [165,166].…”

Supramolecular enzyme-mimicking catalysts self-assembled from peptides

“… 15 The excellent catalytic repertoire of extant natural enzymes is attributed to the unique chemical composition and three-dimensional pocket of their active sites, as a result of long-term evolutionary process. 16 , 17 Owing to the extraordinary catalytic efficiency and outstanding stereoselectivity, enzymes have been broadly applied in the fields of bioengineering, 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 biomedicine, 22 , 23 , 24 food production, 25 , 26 etc. However, the large-scale practical applications of enzymes are restricted.…”

Selective Immobilization of His-Tagged Enzyme on Ni-Chelated Ion Exchange Resin and Its Application in Protein Purification

“…In addition, through the design of immobilization methods and carrier materials, enzyme catalytic activity and substrate specificity can be retained to a great extent. In recent years, well-developed immobilized enzymes have been widely used in the food industry [ 3 , 4 ], environmental protection [ 5 ], biomedicine [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], and other fields [ 9 ].…”