Stability improvement of immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B in an organic medium under microwave radiation

Lipases as Effective Green Biocatalysts for Phytosterol Esters’ Production: A Review

Lipases are versatile enzymes widely used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries. They are green biocatalysts with a high potential for industrial use compared to traditional chemical methods. In recent years, lipases have been used to synthesize a wide variety of molecules of industrial interest, and extraordinary results have been reported. In this sense, this review describes the important role of lipases in the synthesis of phytosterol esters, which have attracted the scientific community’s attention due to their beneficial effects on health. A systematic search for articles and patents published in the last 20 years with the terms “phytosterol AND esters AND lipase” was carried out using the Scopus, Web of Science, Scielo, and Google Scholar databases, and the results showed that Candida rugosa lipases are the most relevant biocatalysts for the production of phytosterol esters, being used in more than 50% of the studies. The optimal temperature and time for the enzymatic synthesis of phytosterol esters mainly ranged from 30 to 101 °C and from 1 to 72 h. The esterification yield was greater than 90% for most analyzed studies. Therefore, this manuscript presents the new technological approaches and the gaps that need to be filled by future studies so that the enzymatic synthesis of phytosterol esters is widely developed.

Process intensification using immobilized enzymes for the development of white biotechnology

Process intensification of biocatalysed reactions using different techniques such as microwaves, ultrasound, hydrodynamic cavitation, ionic liquids, microreactors and flow chemistry in various industries is critically analysed and future directions provided.

Microwave-assisted synthesis of the lipase-catalyzed ring-opening copolymerization of ε-caprolactone and ω-pentadecanolactone: Thermal and FTIR characterization

Microwave-assisted synthesis of the lipase-catalyzed ring opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone (ε-CL) and ω-pentadecanolactone (ω-PDL) monomers was studied. A series of P(CL-co-PDL), with different molar feed ratios, including (ε-CL/ω-PDL) 100/0, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75, and 0/100, were synthesized. The resulting polyesters were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The microwave-assisted polymerization of the monomers reached high conversions (91–95%) within 60 min. FTIR spectra showed the typical absorption bands of these polyesters. A very intense band in the carbonyl region, which was shifted from 1,720 cm−1 for PCL to 1,732 cm−1 for PPDL homopolymer, as well as peaks owing to methylene groups in the 2,990–2,850 cm−1 range. DSC results revealed that all polyester samples were semi-crystalline. Interestingly, the copolymers exhibited only one melting peak (Tm), and their Tm values linearly increased from 57°C to 95°C as PPDL concentration was increased. Thermal stability of polyesters also depended on PDL content; an increase in PDL concentration increases polymer degradation temperature (Td).

Metabolic engineering of Clostridium acetobutylicum for the production of butyl butyrate

Butyl butyrate is widely used as a fragrance additive for foods and beverages. The first step in the currently used process is the production of precursors, including butanol and butyrate, from petroleum using chemical catalysts, followed by the conversion of precursors to butyl butyrate by immobilized lipase. In this work, we engineered Clostridium acetobutylicum for the selective, one-step production of butyl butyrate from glucose. C. acetobutylicum ATCC 824, possessing a strong carbon flux that yields butanol and butyryl-CoA, was selected as a host and was engineered by introducing alcohol acyltransferases (AATs) from Fragaria x ananassa (strawberry) or Malus sp. (apple). Batch culture of the engineered C. acetobutylicum strain CaSAAT expressing the strawberry SAAT gene produced 50.07 mg/L of butyl butyrate with a selectivity of 84.8% of total esters produced. Also, the engineered C. acetobutylicum strain CaAAAT expressing the apple AAAT gene produced 40.60 mg/L of butyl butyrate with a selectivity of 87.4%. This study demonstrated the feasibility of the one-step fermentation of butyl butyrate from glucose in the engineered C. acetobutylicum, as a proof of concept.

Intervention of transglutaminase in surimi gel under microwave irradiation

Transglutaminase (TGase) was selected as model enzyme to investigate the effects of microwave (MW) heating on its activity and structure compared to water bath (WB) heating. MW heating can enhance the activity of TGase and reach the maximum at 20 min, whereas conduction heating has little effect on the activity of TGase. The difference of dielectric properties between MW heating and WB heating were not obvious, but MW heating had higher conductivity than WB heating. The results of ultraviolet and fluorescence spectra show that MW heating can change the enzyme activity by changing the conformation of TGase. The decrease of α-helix and an increase of β-sheet and β-turn investigated by circular dichroism (CD) indicated the secondary structures of TGase were changed when treated by MW heating. Further gel properties test confirmed that TGase treated by MW could improve the functional and mechanical properties of surimi gel.

Microwave-assisted cross-linking of milk proteins induced by microbial transglutaminase

We investigated the combined effects of microbial transglutaminase (MTGase, 7.0 units/mL) and microwave irradiation (MI) on the polymerization of milk proteins at 30 °C for 3 h. The addition of MTGase caused the milk proteins to become polymerized, which resulted in the formation of components with a higher molecular-weight (>130 kDa). SDS-PAGE analysis revealed reductions in the protein content of β-lactoglobulin (β-LG), α_S-casein (α_S-CN), κ-casein (κ-CN) and β-casein (β-CN) to 50.4 ± 2.9, 33.5 ± 3.0, 4.2 ± 0.5 and 1.2 ± 0.1%, respectively. The use of MTGase in conjunction MI with led to a 3-fold increase in the rate of milk protein polymerization, compared to a sample that contained MTGase but did not undergo MI. Results of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) indicated that κ-CN, β-CN, a fraction of serum albumin (SA), β-LG, α-lactalbumin (α-LA), α_s1-casein (α_s1-CN), and α_s2-casein (α_s2-CN) were polymerized in the milk, following incubation with MTGase and MI at 30 °C for 1 h. Based on this result, the combined use of MTGase and MI appears to be a better way to polymerize milk proteins.

On the Effect of Microwave Energy on Lipase-Catalyzed Polycondensation Reactions

Microwave energy (MWe) is, nowadays, widely used as a clean synthesis tool to improve several chemical reactions, such as drug molecule synthesis, carbohydrate conversion and biomass pyrolysis. On the other hand, its exploitation in enzymatic reactions has only been fleetingly investigated and, hence, further study of MWe is required to reach a precise understanding of its potential in this field. Starting from the authors’ experience in clean synthesis and biocatalyzed reactions, this study sheds light on the possibility of using MWe for enhancing enzyme-catalyzed polycondensation reactions and pre-polymer formation. Several systems and set ups were investigated involving bulk and organic media (solution phase) reactions, different enzymatic preparations and various starting bio-based monomers. Results show that MWe enables the biocatalyzed synthesis of polyesters and pre-polymers in a similar way to that reported using conventional heating with an oil bath, but in a few cases, notably bulk phase polycondensations under intense microwave irradiation, MWe leads to a rapid enzyme deactivation.

Effect of external electrostatic field on the stability of β sheet structures

To explore the effect of an external electrostatic field (EEF) on the stability of protein conformations, the molecular dynamic modeling approach was applied to evaluate the effect of an EEF along the x or y direction on a water cluster containing a parallel or antiparallel β sheet structure. The β sheet structure contained two strands with a (Gly)3 sequence separated by a distance d along the x direction. The mean forces between the two strands along the x direction were computed from the trajectories of molecular dynamics simulations. In the absence of the EEF, the forces between the two strands in vacuum were repulsive and attractive in the parallel and antiparallel β sheet structures, respectively. In contrast, the mean forces between the two strands in water were attractive in both the parallel and antiparallel β sheet structures. This is because the electric interactions between the two strands were shielded by water, and the hydrophobic effect dominated the interaction between the two strands. When an EEF >50 MV/cm was applied to the water cluster, the attractive force between the two strands in the parallel and antiparallel β sheet structures decreased and increased, respectively. Further, the binding affinity between the two strands in the parallel and antiparallel β sheet structures also decreased and increased, respectively. This is because the large EEF leads to dielectric saturation, and consequently reduces the effects of the dielectric shielding and hydrophobic interactions.

Microwave assisted enzymatic kinetic resolution of (±)-1-phenyl-2-propyn-1-ol in nonaqueous media

Kinetic resolution of 1-phenyl-2-propyn-1-ol, an important chiral synthon, was studied through trans-esterification with acyl acetate to investigate synergism between microwave irradiation and enzyme catalysis. Lipases from different microbial origins were employed for the kinetic resolution of (R/S)-1-phenyl-2-propyn-1-ol, among which Candida antarctica lipase B, immobilized on acrylic resin (Novozym 435), was found to be the best catalyst in n-hexane as solvent. Vinyl acetate was the most effective among different acyl esters studied. The effect of various parameters was studied in a systematic manner. Definite synergism between microwave and enzyme was observed. The initial rate was improved around 1.28 times under microwave irradiation than conventional heating. Under optimum conditions, maximum conversion (48.78%) and high enantiomeric excess (93.25%) were obtained in 2 h. From modeling studies, it is concluded that the reaction follows the Ping-Pong bi-bi mechanism with dead end alcohol inhibition. Kinetic parameters were obtained by using nonlinear regression. This process is green, clean, and easily scalable as compared to the chemical process.

Lipase-catalyzed ring-opening copolymerization of ε-caprolactone and β-lactam

The enzymatic ring-opening copolymerization of ε-caprolactone (ε-CL) and β-lactam by using Candida antarctica lipase B (CAL-B) as catalyst was studied. Variation of the feed ratios of 25:75, 50:50, and 75:25 of ε-CL/β-lactam was performed. The products contain poly(ε-CL-co-β-lactam) and the homopolymers of poly(ε-CL) and poly(β-lactam). The structure of the copolymers was determined by MALDI-ToF MS. Poly(ε-CL-co-β-lactam) has an alternating and random structure consisting of alternating repeating units with oligo(ε-CL) or oligo(β-lactam). The highest fraction of the alternating copolymers resulted from the reaction with a feed ratio 50:50. The copolymer is a semicrystalline polymer with a Tm at 124 °C and Tgs at -15 and 50 °C. Interestingly, the copolymer also demonstrated cold crystallization at 29 and 74 °C, after quenching the sample from the melt in liquid nitrogen.

Glymes as new solvents for lipase activation and biodiesel preparation

Glymes (i.e. glycol diethers) were explored as alternative benign solvents for enzymatic reactions, specifically the lipase-catalyzed transesterification. Long-chain glymes were found highly compatible with immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B (iCALB), leading to higher enzyme activities and stabilities than t-butanol and ionic liquids (e.g. the rate of transesterification in diethylene glycol dibutyl ether (G2-Bu) was 77% higher than that in t-butanol). Furthermore, soybean oil was found fully miscible with glymes, which enabled a homogeneous reaction mixture for the enzymatic preparation of biodiesel. In the presence of glymes, CALB showed a very high tolerance to high methanol concentrations (up to 60-70% v/v), and nearly stoichiometric triglyceride conversions could be obtained under mild reaction conditions. A laboratory scale-up achieved a high conversion of soybean oil (95.5%). This study suggests that glymes can be environmentally friendly and inexpensive solvents for lipase-catalyzed reactions, such as the enzymatic preparation of biodiesel.

Can electromagnetic fields influence the structure and enzymatic digest of proteins? A critical evaluation of microwave-assisted proteomics protocols

This study reevaluates the putative advantages of microwave-assisted tryptic digests compared to conventionally heated protocols performed at the same temperature. An initial investigation of enzyme stability in a temperature range of 37-80 °C demonstrated that trypsin activity declines sharply at temperatures above 60 °C, regardless if microwave dielectric heating or conventional heating is employed. Tryptic digests of three proteins of different size (bovine serum albumin, cytochrome c and β-casein) were thus performed at 37 °C and 50 °C using both microwave and conventional heating applying accurate internal fiber-optic probe reaction temperature measurements. The impact of the heating method on protein degradation and peptide fragment generation was analyzed by SDS-PAGE and MALDI-TOF-MS. Time-dependent tryptic digestion of the three proteins and subsequent analysis of the corresponding cleavage products by MALDI-TOF provided virtually identical results for both microwave and conventional heating. In addition, the impact of electromagnetic field strength on the tertiary structure of trypsin and BSA was evaluated by molecular mechanics calculations. These simulations revealed that the applied field in a typical laboratory microwave reactor is 3-4 orders of magnitude too low to induce conformational changes in proteins or enzymes.

Nonthermal effect of microwave irradiation in nonaqueous enzymatic esterification

Microwave has nonthermal effects on enzymatic reactions, mainly caused by the polarities of the solvents and substrates. In this experiment, a model reaction with caprylic acid and butanol that was catalyzed by lipase from Mucor miehei in alkanes or arenes was employed to investigate the nonthermal effect in nonaqueous enzymatic esterification. With the comparison of the esterification carried by conventional heating and consecutive microwave irradiation, the positive nonthermal effect on the initial reaction rates was found substrate concentration-dependent and could be vanished ostensibly when the substrate concentration was over 2.0 mol L(-1). The polar parameter log P well correlates the solvent polarity with the microwave effect, comparing to dielectric constant and assayed solvatochromic solvent polarity parameters. The log P rule presented in conventional heating-enzymatic esterification still fits in the microwaved enzymatic esterification. Alkanes or arenes with higher log P provided positive nonthermal effect in the range of 2 ≤ log P ≤ 4, but yielded a dramatic decrement after log P = 4. Isomers of same log P with higher dielectric constant received stronger positive nonthermal effect. With lower substrate concentration, the total log P of the reaction mixture has no obvious functional relation with the microwave effect.

Microwave-assisted enzymatic synthesis of beef tallow biodiesel

Optimal conditions for the microwave-assisted enzymatic synthesis of biodiesel have been developed by a full 2² factorial design leading to a set of seven runs with different combinations of molar ratio and temperature. The main goal was to reduce the reaction time preliminarily established by a process of conventional heating. Reactions yielding biodiesel, in which beef tallow and ethanol used as raw materials were catalyzed by lipase from Burkholderia cepacia immobilized on silica-PVA and microwave irradiations within the range of 8-15 W were performed to reach the reaction temperature. Under optimized conditions (1:6 molar ratio of beef tallow to ethanol molar ratio at 50°C) almost total conversion of the fatty acid presented in the original beef tallow was converted into ethyl esters in a reaction that required 8 h, i.e., a productivity of about 92 mg ethyl esters g⁻¹ h⁻¹. This represents an increase of sixfold for the process carried out under conventional heating. In general, the process promises low energy demand and higher biodiesel productivity. The microwave assistance speeds up the enzyme catalyzed reactions, decreases the destructive effects on the enzyme of the operational conditions such as, higher temperature, stability, and specificity to its substrate, and allows the entire reaction medium to be heated uniformly.

New eutectic ionic liquids for lipase activation and enzymatic preparation of biodiesel

The enzymatic preparation of biodiesel has been hampered by the lack of suitable solvents with desirable properties such as high lipase compatibility, low cost, low viscosity, high biodegradability, and ease of product separation. Recent interest in using ionic liquids (ILs) as advanced reaction media has led to fast reaction rates and high yields in the enzymatic synthesis of biodiesel. However, conventional (i.e., cation-anion paired) ILs based on imidazolium and other quaternary ammonium salts remain too expensive for wide application at industrial scales. In this study, we report on newly-synthesized eutectic ILs derived from choline acetate or choline chloride coupled with biocompatible hydrogen-bond donors, such as glycerol. These eutectic solvents have favorable properties including low viscosity, high biodegradability, and excellent compatibility with Novozym(®) 435, a commercial immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B. Furthermore, in a model biodiesel synthesis system, we demonstrate high reaction rates for the enzymatic transesterification of Miglyol(®) oil 812 with methanol, catalyzed by Novozym(®) 435 in choline acetate/glycerol (1:1.5 molar ratio). The high conversion (97%) of the triglyceride obtained within 3 h, under optimal conditions, suggests that these novel eutectic solvents warrant further exploration as potential media in the enzymatic production of biodiesel.

Folding of gas-phase polyalanines in a static electric field: alignment, deformations, and polarization effects

Monte Carlo simulations of the temperature-induced unfolding of small gas-phase polyalanines in a static, homogeneous electric field are reported, based on the AMBER ff96 force field. The peptides exhibit a structural transition from the native alpha-helix state to entropically favored beta-sheet conformations, before eventually turning to extended coil at higher temperatures. Upon switching the electric field, the molecules undergo preferential alignment of their dipole moment vector toward the field axis and a shift of the alpha-beta transition to higher temperatures. At higher field strengths (>10(8) V/m) the molecules stretch and the alpha-beta and beta-coil transitions merge. A simple three-state model is shown to account for the observed behavior. Under even higher fields, density functional theory calculations and a polarizable force field both show that electronic rearrangements tend to further increase the dipole moment, polarization effects being approximately half in magnitude with respect to stretching effect. Finally a tentative (temperature, field-strength) phase diagram is sketched.

Probing the effects of microwave irradiation on enzyme-catalysed organic transformations: the case of lipase-catalysed transesterification reactions

The lipase-catalysed transesterification reaction of methyl acetoacetate in toluene as a solvent has been studied using carefully controlled conditions. Results suggest that microwave heating does not have a noticeable effect on reaction rate or product conversion.

Influence of microwave radiation on free Candida antarctica lipase B activity and stability

The influence of microwave heating on free Candida antarctica lipase B activity and stability was studied over the temperature range from 40 to 110 degrees C. Concerning the lipase activity, identical initial rate and conversion yield were obtained under microwave radiation and classical thermal heating for the alcoholysis between ethyl butyrate and butanol in a solvent-free system. On the other hand, the kinetics of the free lipase inactivation in butanol appears to be influenced by the heating mode. The Arrhenius plot obtained under classical heating was linear over all the temperature range studied whereas a biphasic Arrhenius plot was obtained under microwaves. The non-classical effect of the microwave heating on the initial rate of the enzymatic inactivation was thus dependent on the temperature of incubation.

Ultrasound-accelerated enzymatic synthesis of sugar esters in nonaqueous solvents

Comparative studies of enzymatic synthesis of glucose esters under ultrasound and shaking were carried out in nonaqueous media. The influence of solvents, enzymes, chain length of the acyl donors, the power of the ultrasound bath, and intermittent ultrasound on the enzymatic synthesis was investigated. Among the eight solvents selected, pyridine was the most appropriate with alkaline protease from Bacillus subtilis whether under ultrasound or shaking. The acceleration effect of ultrasound with Novozym 435 and the alkaline protease from B. subtilis-catalyzed transesterification increased with the chain length of acyl donors, decreasing from C(10) to C(4). We also investigated the influence of the power (50, 100, and 120 W) of the ultrasound irradiation and the manner of operation (continuous ultrasound, 10 min ultrasound/20 min shaking without ultrasound) on the transesterification. The results showed that higher power and continual operational gave the better acceleration. Ultrasound did not change the character and selectivity of the enzyme in the transesterification.

Controlled Microwave Heating in Modern Organic Synthesis

Although fire is now rarely used in synthetic chemistry, it was not until Robert Bunsen invented the burner in 1855 that the energy from this heat source could be applied to a reaction vessel in a focused manner. The Bunsen burner was later superseded by the isomantle, oil bath, or hot plate as a source for applying heat to a chemical reaction. In the past few years, heating and driving chemical reactions by microwave energy has been an increasingly popular theme in the scientific community. This nonclassical heating technique is slowly moving from a laboratory curiosity to an established technique that is heavily used in both academia and industry. The efficiency of "microwave flash heating" in dramatically reducing reaction times (from days and hours to minutes and seconds) is just one of the many advantages. This Review highlights recent applications of controlled microwave heating in modern organic synthesis, and discusses some of the underlying phenomena and issues involved.