Evaluation of Designed Immobilized Catalytic Systems: Activity Enhancement of Lipase B from Candida antarctica

Abstract

Immobilized enzymatic catalysts are widely used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. As Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) is one of the more commonly used biocatalysts, we attempted to design an optimal lipase-catalytic system. In order to do that, we investigated the enantioselectivity and lipolytic activity of CALB immobilized on 12 different supports. Immobilization of lipase on IB-D152 allowed us to achieve hyperactivation (178%) in lipolytic activity tests. Moreover, the conversion in enantioselective esterification increased 43-fold, when proceeding with lipase-immobilized on IB-S861. The immobilized form exhibited a constant high catalytic activity in the temperature range of 25 to 55 °C. Additionally, the lipase immobilized on IB-D152 exhibited a higher lipolytic activity in the pH range of 6 to 9 compared with the native form. Interestingly, our investigations showed that IB-S500 and IB-S60S offered a possibility of application in catalysis in both organic and aqueous solvents. A significant link between the reaction media, the substrates, the supports and the lipase was confirmed. In our enzymatic investigations, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the titrimetric method, as well as the Bradford method were employed.