Metal-Organic Frameworks Conjugated Lipase with Enhanced Bio-catalytic Activity and Stability

Covalent immobilization of lipase onto a solid carrier is an effective way to enhance stability. Immobilization inhibits the activity of lipase due to decreased flexibility of enzyme structure via the covalent bond. In this study, monomer of the metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) material ZIF-8 (2-methyl imidazole-4-carboxylic acid) was innovatively used as a chemical modifier of Candida nrugosa lipase (CRL). The circular dichroism spectra results show that the CRL molecule was altered by chemical modification and thus its catalytic activity was 1.3 times higher than that of the free CRL. The modified CRL molecule was further immobilized in the "skeleton" of ZIF-8 through the monomer while in situ forming the cell skeleton of the MOFs, which prevent the active center from being destroyed. The results show that conjugation of chemical modification and immobilized enzymes ensure that there was no obvious reduction in the activity of CRL after immobilization and the stability of CRL was improved. Especially, the organic solvent stability of the modified immobilization CRL in isopropanol was significantly improved and retained more than 148% of its activity.