Improved Catalytic Performance of Lipase Within Hydrogel Microspheres Incorporating L/D-Co₃O₄ Nanoparticles

Lipases have drawn significant attention due to their crucial roles across various industries, including oil processing, food, medicine, and daily chemicals. Nevertheless, their catalytic efficiency is susceptible to fluctuations in external environmental conditions, which remains a major barrier to their broader application. In this research, chiral hydrogel microspheres (HMSs) are developed by incorporating L/D-Co₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) into the synthetic process of HMSs, which are discovered to enhance the catalytic performance of lipases. The improved catalytic activity of lipases is observed to be influenced by the chiral environment of L/D-Co₃O₄-HMSs. Specifically, when 2 wt.% lipases are encapsulated in L-Co₃O₄-HMSs containing 10 wt.% L-Co₃O₄ NPs, their catalytic activity is 2.11 times higher than when encapsulated in D-Co₃O₄-HMSs, resulting in a 2.62-fold increase in catalytic activity compared to free lipase. Moreover, the L-Lip-HMS₃, which contained 2 wt.% lipases and 10 wt.% L-Co₃O₄ NPs, exhibited superior inhibitory capability over D-Lip-HMS₃ in differentiating fibroblast mouse cells into adipocytes, owing to its enhanced catalytic capabilities. This study not only highlights the importance of chirality in improving the catalytic performance of natural enzymes but also provides a new perspective on developing catalytic systems that can endow natural enzymes with higher catalytic performances.