Reversible Deactivation of Enzymes by Redox-Responsive Nanogel Carriers

Novel redox-responsive polymeric nanogels that allow highly efficient enzyme encapsulation and reversible modulation of enzyme activity are developed. The nanogel synthesis and encapsulation of enzyme are performed simultaneously via in situ crosslinking of pyridyldisulfide-functionalized water-soluble reactive copolymers, which are synthesized via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer copolymerization. Obtained nanogels with loaded cellulase demonstrate very good colloidal stability in aqueous solutions. The enzymatic activity of cellulase is greatly reduced when encapsulated in the nanogels and rapidly recovered in 10 × 10^-3 m dithiothreitol solution. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based experiments indicate that the recovered enzymatic activity is mainly ascribed to the release of the enzyme due to the degradation of the disulfide crosslinking network after addition of dithiothreitol (DTT), instead of the enhanced substrate transport rate. The developed enzyme immobilization method opens new possibilities for reversible activation/deactivation of enzymes and opens up new directions for targeted protein therapy and biotechnology applications.