Non-proteinaceous hydrolase comprised of a phenylalanine metallo-supramolecular amyloid-like structure

Visible-light photooxidation in water by 1O2-generating supramolecular hydrogels

“…20 For example, the Meijer 21 and Escuder 22 groups have shown that a self-assembled, 1D ber network enhances catalytic activity compared to its non-assembled counterpart. [23][24][25][26][27][28] Most recent examples of hydrogel photocatalysts 29 involve co-assembling of the photocatalysts with gelators, where catalysts and gelators are two separate components. These hydrogel photocatalysts were used for the oxidation of iodide, 30 hydrogen production, 31 polymer crosslinking, 32 and articial photosynthesis.…”

Protoenzymes: The Case of Hyperbranched Polymer-Scaffolded ZnS Nanocrystals

“…In the realm of organic biomimetic catalysts, both prebiotic and synthetic, the utility of amino acids and small peptide aggregates has been extensively explored (Reference [18], and references therein). In the prebiotic context, Gazit and coworkers have shown both that aromatic dipeptide assemblies stabilize RNA [19] and that assemblies of phenylalanine and zinc cations exhibit strong hydrolase activity [20]. Mansy and coworkers have investigated the redox activity of short peptide and iron-sulfur cluster nanosized assemblies as a putative origin of ferredoxins [21,22].…”

Membrane Trafficking Inspired Hydrolysis of Non-Activated Esters at Physiological pH

“…enzymes 4 , small molecule bioinspired robust catalysts 5 . However, designing an synthetic enzyme is challenging, synthesis is laborious and the activity is often limited in industrial use 6 .…”

“…While an ester usually be hydrolyzed at basic pH and at elevated temperature, the catalytic triad of esterase performs similar reaction at neutral buffer solution (pH ~7.0) and at physiological temperature 24,25 . Researchers put considerable effort to design the synthetic mimic of esterase using de novo design 26,27 , dendrimer 28 , polymer 29 , membrane 30,31 , selfassembling peptides 32,33 , nanofibers 34 and amyloid fibrils 5,33,35 to cleave an ester at the physiological condition. However, most of the designs are only able to cleave the active ester like p-nitrophenol ester 5,27,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] and remain ineffective towards normal non-activated esters 37 .…”