GIST Research Team Develops 'All-in-One Eco-Friendly Nanoreactor' for Continuous Drug Manufacturing

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwan-woo] Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) announced on the 13th that the research team led by Professors Kwon In-chan and Tae Ki-yong from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering has developed an eco-friendly nano-reactor capable of repeatedly producing useful drugs without the additional supply of eco-friendly biocatalysts and cofactors.

The research team simultaneously encapsulated two types of redox enzymes, which are biocatalysts, and cofactors combined with alginate into nanoparticles, confirming that cofactors can be reused while producing the desired compounds.

Recently, as interest in developing eco-friendly manufacturing processes has increased, manufacturing processes using enzymes, which are safe biocatalysts obtained from nature, have been gaining attention.

In particular, redox enzymes that promote oxidation-reduction reactions play a central role in eco-friendly production of high value-added compounds.

However, due to the high cost of enzymes, many studies have been conducted to immobilize them on specific carriers for prolonged use. Many types of redox enzymes consume electron carriers called cofactors, which are also expensive, posing a significant obstacle to developing compound production processes using redox enzymes.

Moreover, cofactors are small in size, making them difficult to immobilize with conventional carriers, which imposes another limitation on long-term use.

To improve the recyclability of cofactors, the research team designed a nano-reactor by binding two types of redox enzymes capable of cofactor recycling and cofactors to alginate, a natural polymer, increasing their size, and then encapsulating them into polymer nanoparticles through simple methods such as temperature control, enabling reuse of enzymes and cofactors.

The nano-reactor developed by the research team was confirmed to repeatedly produce the useful drug D-mannitol (a drug for reducing intraocular and intracranial pressure) without additional supply of enzymes and cofactors, and it can also be used to produce various other drugs.

Professor Kwon In-chan stated, “The nano-reactor, in which enzymes and cofactors are simultaneously immobilized, is a platform technology that can be used to manufacture various compounds including drugs,” adding, “This nano-reactor, as a typical eco-friendly technology, is expected to contribute to new carbon resource utilization or carbon-neutral process development by recycling cofactors to convert by-product gases or greenhouse gases into useful compounds.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.