Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California, 9500 Gilman Drive, San Diego, La Jolla CA, USA.
Chem Commun (Camb). 2011 Nov 21;47(43):11814-21. doi: 10.1039/c1cc15220c. Epub 2011 Sep 30.
Enzymes are the prime protagonists in the chemistry of living organisms. As such, chemists and biologists have long been fascinated by the array of highly selective transformations possible under biological conditions that are facilitated by enzyme-catalyzed reactions. Moreover, enzymes are involved in replicating, repairing and transmitting information in a highly selective and organized fashion through detection and signal amplification cascades. Indeed, because of their selectivity and potential for use outside of biological systems, enzymes have found immense utility in various biochemical assays and are increasingly finding applications in the preparation of small molecules. By contrast, the use of enzymatic reactions to prepare and build supramolecular and nanoscale materials is relatively rare. In this article, we seek to highlight efforts over the past 10 years at taking advantage of enzymatic reactions to assemble and manipulate complex soft, organic materials on the nanoscale. It is tantalizing to think of these processes as mimics of natural systems where enzymes are used in the assembly and transformation of the most complex nanomaterials known, for example, virus capsid assemblies and the myriad array of nanoscale biomolecular machinery.
酶是生物体内化学反应的主要参与者。因此，化学家们长期以来一直对生物条件下通过酶促反应实现的高度选择性转化的多样性着迷。此外，酶还参与通过检测和信号放大级联以高度选择性和有组织的方式复制、修复和传递信息。事实上，由于它们的选择性和在生物系统之外使用的潜力，酶在各种生化测定中得到了广泛的应用，并在小分子的制备中越来越多地得到应用。相比之下，利用酶反应来制备和构建超分子和纳米级材料的情况相对较少。在本文中，我们试图强调过去 10 年来利用酶反应在纳米尺度上组装和操纵复杂的软有机材料的努力。这些过程可以作为天然系统的模拟，在这些系统中，酶被用于组装和转化最复杂的纳米材料，例如病毒衣壳组装体和无数的纳米级生物分子机器。
