Conjugation of trypsin by temperature-sensitive polymers containing a carbohydrate moiety: Thermal modulation of enzyme activity

Novel temperature-sensitive polymers containing glucose units in their backbone were synthesized and covalently conjugated to trypsin. A series of copolymers based on N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) and glucosyoxylethyl methacrylate (GEMA) were prepared by using 4,4'-azobis(4-cyanovaleric acid) as an initiator, which resulted in one terminal carboxylic acid group per polymer chain. The polymers were conjugated to primary amine groups of trypsin with water-soluble carbodiimide as a coupling agent, which led to a star-shaped conformation. The polymer-enzyme conjugation was confirmed and characterized by size exclusion and reversed-phase chromatography. Almost of all amine groups in trypsin available for the conjugation were consumed and, consequently, a very dense layer of copolymers was actually coated around the enzyme surface. The conjugated enzymes exhibited reversible precipitation/resolubilization behaviors over a wide range of temperatures, depending on the content of GEMA in the copolymer. They also demonstrated no detectable self-digestion (autolysis) process, but the unconjugated enzyme showed very severe autolysis that led to a rapid inactivation in aqueous solution. When bovine serum albumin was used as a substrate, the protein substrate was not attacked by the conjugated enzyme, but completely digested by the unconjugated enzyme. This result was presumably caused by a steric repulsion process of the attached polymer chains around the enzyme toward the protein substrate. However, the enzyme retained sufficient activity against a low molecular weight substrate. Interestingly, the conjugated enzymes demonstrated very peculiar enzyme activity-temperature profiles, with two apparent optimal temperatures, indicating that a temperature-controlled collapse and flocculation of the copolymers around the enzyme surface modulated the mass transfer rates of substrate to the active site of the enzyme. The conjugated enzymes also exhibited improved thermal stability with increasing the amount of carbohydrate units in the polymer chain.