Imidazole‐Grafted Nanogels for the Fabrication of Organic–Inorganic Protein Hybrids

Abstract

Here, a platform for the development of highly responsive organicinorganic enzyme hybrids is provided. The approach entails a first step of protein engineering, in which individual enzymes are armored with a porous nanogel decorated with imidazole motifs. In a second step, by mimicking the biomineralization mechanism, the assembly of the imidazole nanogels with CuSO 4 and phosphate salts is triggered. A full characterization of the new composites reveals the first reported example in which the assembly mechanism is triggered by the sum of Cu(II)-imidazole interaction and Cu 3 (PO 4 ) 2 inorganic salt formation. It is demonstrated that the organic component of the hybrids, namely the imidazole-modified polyacrylamide hydrogel, provides a favorable spatial distribution for the enzyme. This results in enhanced conversion rates, robustness of the composite at low pH values, and a remarkable thermal stability at 65 °C, exhibiting 400% of the activity of the mineralized enzyme lacking the organic constituent. Importantly, unlike in previous works, the protocol applies to the use of a broad range of transition metal cations (including mono-, di-, and trivalent cations) to trigger the mineralization mechanism, which eventually broadens the chemical and structural diversity of organic-inorganic protein hybrids.

Supramolecular Assembly of Benzimidazole Derivatives and Applications

“…Nanotube flowers were obtained upon addition of Eu(NO 3 ) 3 and Tb(NO 3 ) 3 , while in the case of Cu(NO 3 ) 2 , microflower structures were observed. The latter structures were very similar to the nanoflower structures formed from bovine serum albumin (BSA) in phosphate buffer and Cu(SO 4 ) 2 metal salt reported in the fabrication of protein nanoflowers and nanosponges [32,33].…”

A 0D Lead‐Free Hybrid Crystal with Ultralow Thermal Conductivity

“…Organic–inorganic hybrid materials represent a vast interdisciplinary field of research involving composites, MOFs, biomaterials, to name a few . These hybrid materials with a wide spectrum of properties have found important applications in optics, electronics, transportation, health, energy, and environmental technologies .…”

Tunable Polymeric Scaffolds for Enzyme Immobilization

“…Thicker layers lead to mass transfer issues. In more recent examples, new functionalities have been introduced into the polymeric shell, i.e., hydroxyl, amino, carboxyl, and imidazole groups ( Figure 4B ), which have been further utilized as building blocks for the synthesis of heterogeneous catalysts for biocatalysis or biosensing ( Rodriguez-Abetxuko et al, 2018 , 2019a,b ). Indeed, SENs, which were initially conceived to enhance the stability of the enzyme, have been also applied in different fields.…”