Self-Assembled Peptide Nanofibers Designed as Biological Enzymes for Catalyzing Ester Hydrolysis

Abstract

The structural arrangement of amino acid residues in a native enzyme provides a blueprint for the design of artificial enzymes. One challenge of mimicking the catalytic center of a native enzyme is how to arrange the essential amino acid residues in an appropriate position. In this study, we designed an artificial hydrolase via self-assembly of short peptides to catalyze ester hydrolysis. When the assembled hydrolase catalytic sites were embedded in a matrix of peptide nanofibers, they exhibited much higher catalytic efficiency than the peptide nanofibers without the catalytic sites, suggesting that this well-ordered nanostructure is an attractive scaffold for developing new artificial enzymes. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity of the assembled hydrolase was evaluated with human cells, and the novel artificial biological enzyme showed excellent biocompatibility.

Enhancing the Activity of Peptide-Based Artificial Hydrolase with Catalytic Ser/His/Asp Triad and Molecular Imprinting

“…23 Similar results have also been reported by Korendovych that the activities of self-assembly heptapeptides can be significantly enhanced through the coordination of Zn 2+ . 22 However, this example follows a different catalytic mechanism based on a metal ion Lewis acid catalysis which may not quite adaptable for other reaction systems.…”

Short Peptides in Minimalistic Biocatalyst Design

“…A further example that utilises peptide self-assembly to organise catalytic residues was published by Liang and co-workers [31]. Like the previous example, they make use of a self-assembling peptide to present catalytic centres (His) and binding sites (Arg) on the surface of a nanofiber.…”

Competition versus Cooperation in Catalytic Hydrogelators for anti‐Selective Mannich Reaction

“…Self‐assembly of amphiphilic molecules with covalently appended catalytic moieties may result in the formation of hydrophobic pockets, which makes the recognition and approach of hydrophobic substrates easier in the vicinity of active sites. It also allows better cooperation and increased local concentration of the functional groups, along with added advantages, such as easier product separation and recyclability of the self‐assembled catalyst . Owing to these properties, self‐assembling catalytic hydrogelators have previously been reported to carry out transformations, such as the Henry reaction, Aldol reaction, ester hydrolysis, and oxygen activation, with enzyme‐like efficacy.…”