Covalent Immobilization of Trypsin on a Novel Aldehyde-Terminated PAMAM Dendrimer

Abstract

Dendrimers are a novel class of nonlinear polymers and due to their extensive applications in different fields, called versatile polymers. Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers are one of the most important dendrimers that have many applications in nanobiotechnology and industry. Generally aldehyde terminated dendrimers are prepared by activation of amine terminated dendrimers by glutaraldehyde which has two problems, toxicity and possibility of crosslink formation. In this study, novel aldehyde-terminated PAMAM dendrimer was prepared and used for covalent immobilization of trypsin by the aim of finding a special reagent which can prevent crosslinking and deactivation of the enzyme. For this purpose aminoacetaldehydedimethylacetal (AADA) was used as spacer group between aldehyde-terminated PAMAM and trypsin. The findings of this study showed that immobilization of trypsin not only resulted higher optimal temperature, but also increased the thermal stability of the immobilized enzyme in comparison to the free enzyme.