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Despite tremendous efforts to develop stimuli-responsive enzyme delivery systems, their efficacy has been mostly limited to in vitro applications. Here we introduce, by using an approach of combining biomolecules with artificial compartments, a biomimetic strategy to create artificial organelles (AOs) as cellular implants, with endogenous stimuli-triggered enzymatic activity. AOs are produced by inserting protein gates in the membrane of polymersomes containing horseradish peroxidase enzymes selected as a model for natures own enzymes involved in the redox homoeostasis. The inserted protein gates are engineered by attaching molecular caps to genetically modified channel porins in order to induce redoxresponsive control of the molecular flow through the membrane. AOs preserve their structure and are activated by intracellular glutathione levels in vitro. Importantly, our biomimetic AOs are functional in vivo in zebrafish embryos, which demonstrates the feasibility of using AOs as cellular implants in living organisms. This opens new perspectives for patientoriented protein therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cells are sophisticated biocatalytic systems driving a complex network of biochemical reactions. A bioinspired strategy to create advanced functional systems is to design confined spaces for complex enzymatic reactions by using a combination of synthetic polymer assemblies and natural cell components. Here, we developed bio-catalytic nanocompartments that contain phosphoglucomutase protected by a biomimetic polymer membrane, which was permeabilized for reactants through insertion of an engineered α-hemolysin pore protein. These bio-catalytic nanocompartments serve for production of glucose-6-phosphate, and thus possess great potential for applications in an incomplete glycolysis, pentose phosphate pathway, or in plant biological reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometry and molecular mechanics force field calculations have been performed on some sterically hindered copper(II) complexes with hydrazonotriazine ligands, in order to gain further insight into the relationship between their bonding, structures and biological activity. As was the case with Cu(II) bis(hydrazono-triazine) complexes studied previously, the most stable configuration for all of the complexes involves coordination of two nitrogen and two oxygen atoms (2N2O) in a distorted tetragonal arrangement. With the present complexes, however, the superoxide radical scavenging activities were very low, a result which may be explained by their inability to form a (nearly) square planar structure, which facilitates the copper redox cycling during superoxide dismutation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and molecular dynamics calculations have been used to compare the chemical environments of Cu(II) in three substituted asymmetric-triazine (as-triazine) complexes with a closely related complex that was reported previously to have Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and antiviral activities. The structure most strongly associated with the biological activity appears to be planar with two 6-membered chelate rings having 2N2O coordination around the copper atom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correction for ‘Bio-catalytic nanocompartments for in situ production of glucose-6-phosphate’ by M. Lomora et al., Chem. Commun., 2017, 53, 10148–10151. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]