Co-Enzymes based nanoflowers incorporated-magnetic carbon nanotubes: A new generation nanocatalyst for superior removal of cationic and anionic dyes with great repeated use

Formation of Colchicine-incorporated Hybrid Nanoflower With an Intrinsic Peroxidase-Mimic and Enhanced Antimicrobial Activities

We report the formation of colchicine-Cu3(PO4)2 hybrid nanoflowers (Colc-NFs) with intrinsic catalytic and antimicrobial activities with and without hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). While the colchicine molecule, known as a secondary metabolite with anti-inflammatory properties, was used as an organic part of Colc-NFs, the Cu2+ ion acted as an inorganic part of Colc-NFs. The acetamide group in the colchicine structure may react with Cu2+ ions in phosphate-buffered saline to form Colc-NFs. The Colc-NFs exhibited both an intrinsic peroxidase-mimic activity against guaiacol and antimicrobial activities against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans in the presence of H2O2. Both activities of the Colc-NFs rely on a Fenton-like reaction mechanism by producing reactive hydroxyl radicals. In addition to that high surface-to-volume ratio and porous structure of Colc-NFs may contribute to their peroxidase-mimic activities depending on the Fenton-like reaction.

Protein Based Hybrid Materials of Metal Phosphate Nanoflowers and Gels for Water Remediation: Perspectives and Prospects

Water pollution is a critical environmental issue affecting ecosystems and human health worldwide. Contaminants such as heavy metals, dyes, antibiotics, and microplastics enter water bodies from the disposals of industrial, agricultural, and domestic waste. The development of new and advanced technologies for addressing water remediation has turned out to be a dire need. Protein-inorganic hybrid materials have emerged as innovative solutions for water remediation, leveraging the unique properties of both the proteins and the inorganic components. These hybrid materials connect the biocompatibility and specificity of proteins with that of the structural stability and catalytic capability of the inorganic frameworks. In recent times, protein inorganic hybrids are gaining importance in water remediation due to their ease of synthesis and chemical modification, stability, biocompatibility and biodegradability. This article brings out the recent advancements in the development of two major kinds of protein inorganic hybrid materials, viz., metal phosphate nanoflowers and gels in the context of water purification. The effect of major factors, like, morphology, porosity, pore size and nature, surface area, and the nature of the composite were systematically compared and analyzed to make it beneficial for future researchers in the development of such hybrid materials for water remediation in a sustainable manner. For this, the article addresses the current trends and draws conclusions on future perspectives to support the topic on providing clean and potable water for everyone on the globe.

Magnetic nanoflowers: a hybrid platform for enzyme immobilization

The use of organic-inorganic hybrid nanoflowers as a support material for enzyme immobilization has gained significant attention in recent years due to their high stability, ease of preparation, and enhanced catalytic activity. However, a major challenge in utilizing these hybrid nanoflowers for enzyme immobilization is the difficulty in handling and separating them due to their low density and high dispersion. To address this issue, magnetic nanoflowers have emerged as a promising alternative enzyme immobilization platform due to their easy separation, structural stability, and ability to enhance catalytic efficiency. This review focuses on different methods for designing magnetic nanoflowers, as well as future research directions. Additionally, it provides examples of enzymes immobilized in the form of magnetic nanoflowers and their applications in environmental remediation, biosensors, and food industries. Finally, the review discusses possible ways to improve the material for enhanced catalytic activity, structural stability, and scalability.

Immobilized enzymatic membrane surfaces for biocatalytic organics removal and fouling resistance

This research reported on the immobilization of environmentally friendly enzymes, such as horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and laccase (L), along with the hydrophilic zwitterionic compound l-DOPA on nano-filtration (NF) membranes. This approach introduced biocatalytic membranes, leveraging combined effects between membranes and enzymes. The aim was to systematically assess the efficacy of the enzymatic modified membrane (HRP-NF) in degrading colors in the wastewater, as well as enhancing the membrane resistance toward organic fouling. The enzymatic immobilized membrane demonstrated 96.3 ± 1.8% to 96.6 ± 1.9% removal of colors, and 65.2 ± 1.3% to 67.2 ± 1.3% removal of TOC. This result was underpinned by the insights obtained from the radical scavenger coumarin, which was employed to trap and confirm the formation of PRs through the reaction of enzymes and H2O2. Furthermore, membranes modified with enzymes exhibited significantly improved antifouling properties. The HRP-NF membrane experienced an 8% decline in flux, while the co-immobilized HRP-L-NF membrane demonstrated as low as 6% flux decline, contributed by the synergistic effect of increased hydrophilicity and biocatalytic effects. These findings confirmed that the immobilized enzymatic surface has added function of degrading contaminants in addition to separation function of nanofiltration membrane. These l-DOPA-immobilized enzymatic membranes offered a promising hybrid biocatalytic membrane to eliminate dyes and mitigate membrane fouling, which can be applied in many industrial and domestic water and wastewater treatment.

Rational design of EDTA-incorporated nanoflowers as novel and effective endodontic disinfection against biofilms

The ethylenediaminetetradiacetic acid (EDTA) is one of the most commonly used irrigation solutions. Although EDTA has a very low antimicrobial property, it is used to remove inorganic part of smear layer in areas of root canal system. Herein, we developed EDTA-incorporated nanoflowers (EDTA NFs), for the first time, as novel and effective irrigation solution with quite high antimicrobial property to provide complete disinfection in root canal system. We both systematically elucidated the formation of the EDTA NFs with various techniques, and their catalytic and antimicrobial activities in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) were documented through intrinsic EDTA property and peroxidase-like activities.

Single-Walled (Magnetic) Carbon Nanotubes in a Pectin Matrix in the Design of an Allantoin Delivery System

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) outperform other materials due to their high conductivity, large specific surface area, and chemical resistance. They have numerous biomedical applications, including the magnetization of the SWCNT (mSWCNT). The drug loading and release properties of see-through pectin hydrogels doped with SWCNTs and mSWCNTs were evaluated in this study. The active molecule in the hydrogel structure is allantoin, and calcium chloride serves as a cross-linker. In addition to mixing, absorption, and swelling techniques, drug loading into carbon nanotubes was also been studied. To characterize the films, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, surface contact angle measurements, and opacity analysis were carried out. Apart from these, a rheological analysis was also carried out to examine the flow properties of the hydrogels. The study was also expanded to include N-(9-fluorenyl methoxycarbonyl)glycine-coated SWCNTs and mSWCNTs as additives to evaluate the efficiency of the drug-loading approach. Although the CNT additive was used at a 1:1000 weight ratio, it had a significant impact on the hydrogel properties. This effect, which was first observed in the thermal properties, was confirmed in rheological analyses by increasing solution viscosity. Additionally, rheological analysis and drug release profiles show that the type of additive causes a change in the matrix structure. According to TGA findings, even though SWCNTs and mSWCNTs were not coated more than 5%, the coating had a significant effect on drug release control. In addition to all findings, cell viability tests revealed that hydrogels with various additives could be used for visual wound monitoring, hyperthermia treatment, and allantoin release in wound treatment applications.

Ficin-copper hybrid nanoflowers with enhanced peroxidase-like activity for colorimetric detection of biothiols

The proteolytic enzyme ficin exhibits peroxidase-like activity but it is low and insufficient for real applications. Herein, we developed ficin-copper hybrid nanoflowers and demonstrated that they have significantly enhanced peroxidase-like activity of over 6-fold higher than that of free ficin, with one of the lowest Km and highest kcat values among all reported ficin-based peroxidase-like nanozymes. This was most likely caused by the synergistic catalysis of co-existing ficin and crystalline copper phosphate within nanoflower matrices having a large surface area. The nanoflowers were easily prepared by incubating ficin and copper sulfate at ambient temperature, causing coordination interactions between ficin's amine/amide moieties and copper ions, followed by concomitant anisotropic growth of petals composed of copper phosphate crystals with ficin. When compared to free ficin and natural horseradish peroxidase, the resulting nanoflowers' affinity toward H2O2 was greatly increased, yielding Km values of half and one-tenth, respectively, as well as noticeably improved stability. The nanoflowers were then applied to colorimetric determination of biological thiols (biothiols), such as cysteine (Cys), glutathione (GSH), and homocysteine (Hcy), based on their inhibition of nanoflowers' peroxidase-like activity, producing reduced color intensities as the concentration of biothiols increased. This strategy achieved highly sensitive colorimetric determinations of Cys, GSH, and Hcy after only 25-min incubation. Additionally, using this technique, biothiols in human serum were successfully determined with excellent precision, suggesting the potential application of this technology in clinical settings, particularly in point-of-care testing environments.

Magnetic nanomaterials assisted nanobiocatalysis to abate groundwater pollution

Magnetic nanoparticles are of great interest for research as they have a wide range of applications in biotechnology, environmental science, and biomedicine. Magnetic nanoparticles are ideal for magnetic separation, improving catalysis's speed and reusability by immobilizing enzymes. Nanobiocatalysis allows the removal of persistent pollutants in a viable, cost-effective and eco-friendly manner, transforming several hazardous compounds in water into less toxic derivatives. Iron oxide and graphene oxide are the preferred materials used to confer nanomaterials their magnetic properties for this purpose as they pair well with enzymes due to their biocompatibility and functional properties. This review describes the most common synthesis methods for magnetic nanoparticles and their performance of nanobiocatalysis for the degradation of pollutants in water.•Magnetic nanomaterials have been synthesized for their application in nanobiocatalysis and treating groundwater.•The most used method for magnetic nanoparticle preparation is the co-precipitation technique.•Peroxidase and oxidase enzymes have great potential in the remotion of multiple contaminants from groundwater.

Designing multifunctional biocatalytic cascade system by multi-enzyme co-immobilization on biopolymers and nanostructured materials

In recent decades, enzyme-based biocatalytic systems have garnered increasing interest in industrial and applied research for catalysis and organic chemistry. Many enzymatic reactions have been applied to sustainable and environmentally friendly production processes, particularly in the pharmaceutical, fine chemicals, and flavor/fragrance industries. However, only a fraction of the enzymes available has been stepped up towards industrial-scale manufacturing due to low enzyme stability and challenging separation, recovery, and reusability. In this context, immobilization and co-immobilization in robust support materials have emerged as valuable strategies to overcome these inadequacies by facilitating repeated or continuous batch operations and downstream processes. To further reduce separations, it can be advantageous to use multiple enzymes at once in one pot. Enzyme co-immobilization enables biocatalytic synergism and reusability, boosting process efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Several studies on multi-enzyme immobilization and co-localization propose kinetic advantages of the enhanced turnover number for multiple enzymes. This review spotlights recent progress in developing versatile biocatalytic cascade systems by multi-enzyme co-immobilization on environmentally friendly biopolymers and nanostructured materials and their application scope in the chemical and biotechnological industries. After a succinct overview of carrier-based and carrier-free immobilization/co-immobilizations, co-immobilization of enzymes on a range of biopolymer and nanomaterials-based supports is thoroughly compiled with contemporary and state-of-the-art examples. This study provides a new horizon in developing effective and innovative multi-enzymatic systems with new possibilities to fully harness the adventure of biocatalytic systems.

Novel Approach for the Isolation and Immobilization of a Recombinant Transaminase: Applying an Advanced Nanocomposite System

The increasing application of recombinant enzymes demands not only effective and sustainable fermentation, but also highly efficient downstream processing and further stabilization of the enzymes by immobilization. In this study, a novel approach for the isolation and immobilization of His-tagged transaminase from Chromobacterium violaceum (CvTA) has been developed. A recombinant of CvTA was simultaneously isolated and immobilized by binding on silica nanoparticles (SNPs) with metal affinity linkers and additionally within poly(lactic acid) (PLA) nanofibers. The linker length and the nature of the metal ion significantly affected the enzyme binding efficiency and biocatalytic activity of CvTA-SNPs. The formation of PLA nanofibers by electrospinning enabled rapid embedding of CvTA-SNPs biocatalysts and ensured enhanced stability and activity. The developed advanced immobilization method reduces the time required for enzyme isolation, purification and immobilization by more than fourfold compared to a classical stepwise technique.

N-acylhomoserine lactonase-based hybrid nanoflowers: a novel and practical strategy to control plant bacterial diseases

BACKGROUND

The disease caused by plant pathogenic bacteria in the production, transportation, and storage of many crops has brought huge losses to agricultural production. N-acylhomoserine lactonases (AHLases) can quench quorum-sensing (QS) by hydrolyzing acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs), which makes them the promising candidates for controlling infections of QS-dependent pathogenic bacteria. Although many AHLases have been isolated and considered as a potentially effective preventive and therapeutic agents for bacterial diseases, the intrinsically poor ambient stability has seriously restricted its application.

RESULTS

Herein, we showed that a spheroid enzyme-based hybrid nanoflower (EHNF), AhlX@Ni₃(PO₄)₂, can be easily synthesized, and it exhibited 10 times AHL (3OC8-HSL) degradation activity than that with free AhlX (a thermostable AHL lactonase). In addition, it showed intriguing stability even at the working concentration, and retained ~ 100% activity after incubation at room temperature (25 °C) for 40 days and approximately 80% activity after incubation at 60 °C for 48 h. Furthermore, it exhibited better organic solvent tolerance and long-term stability in a complicated ecological environment than that of AhlX. To reduce the cost and streamline production processes, CSA@Ni₃(PO₄)₂, which was assembled from the crude supernatants of AhlX and Ni₃(PO₄)₂, was synthesized. Both AhlX@Ni₃(PO₄)₂ and CSA@Ni₃(PO₄)₂ efficiently attenuated pathogenic bacterial infection.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, we have developed N-acylhomoserine lactonase-based hybrid nanoflowers as a novel and efficient biocontrol reagent with significant control effect, outstanding environmental adaptability and tolerance. It was expected to overcome the bottlenecks of poor stability and limited environmental tolerance that have existed for over two decades and pioneered the practical application of EHNFs in the field of biological control.