In-situ construction of enzyme-copper nucleotide composite for efficient chemo-enzymatic cascade reaction

The integration of chemical catalyst and biocatalyst is of great interest due to the accompanying high designability of chemo-enzymatic cascade reactions for sustainable catalytic processes in chemical engineering. Here, a facile strategy is proposed by preparation of a copper ions coordinated cytidine monophosphate (CMP) encapsulated lipase composite via in-situ assembly in aqueous solution which followed by reduction to obtain an enzyme-copper hybrid catalyst. The as-synthesized enzyme-copper nucleotide composite exhibited both high enzymatic activity (6.05 U/mg) and copper-catalytic activity (with reaction rate constant of 8.85 min−1) in the chemo-enzymatic cascade reaction for hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl butyrate (p-NPB) and generation of p-aminophenol (p-AP), which is a pharmaceutical intermediate for production of analgesics and antipyretics. This study thus sheds light on fabrication of hybrid catalyst under facile conditions, exhibiting potential in development of biosensors, industrial catalysis and biomanufacturing.