Magnetic Amyloid-Based Biocatalyst For The Hydrolysis Of Urea

ALEJANDRO DE ATHAYDE MONCORVO COLLADO,; SOCÍAS B.; CHEHÍN R.; VERA PINGITORE E.; CHAVES S.

Buenos Aires

Simposio; XIII Simposio Argentino de Polímeros ? SAP 2019; 2019

The presence of urea in export wines and other alcoholic beverages represents a recent problem since the chemical reaction with ethanol leads to the formation of ethyl carbamate, a carcinogenic agent according to the World Health Organization. The regulations of the United States and the European Union have established an increasingly lower limit for its maximum levels in imported products to ensure the food safety. Therefore, the objective of this work was to obtain a catalyst for urea hydrolysis before bottling of beverages such as wine. It is important for this catalyst to be highly specific for urea degradation and not to alter other chemical properties of the beverage. In addition, it is intended to be easily removable and leave no residues in the food. In order to achieve this, soybean urease was immobilized in magnetic microparticles. In order to amplify the effective surface area of the particles and their capacity to act as support for the enzyme, chicken egg lysozyme fibers labeled with biotin were obtained. Secondly, fibers were incubated with magnetic particles marked with streptavidin. In addition to the effective surface increase, lysozyme fibers provided multiple active sites for the immobilization of the biocatalyst. Finally, soybean urease was immobilized in the fibers by CHICUP (Copper and Hydrogen peroxide Induced Cross-linking of Unmodified Proteins) method, giving rise to a magnetic biomicrocatalyst with remarkable urease activity, which is maintained even after 10 reuses. This platform can be used for the immobilization of other molecules to design and develop different biocatalysts for the food industry.