ABSTRACT
Microemulsions ......................................................................... 353 13.2 Enzymatically Catalyzed Reactions in Microemulsions ....................... 354
13.2.1 Proteases in W/O Microemulsions ............................................ 354 13.2.1.1 Peptide Synthesis ....................................................... 355 13.2.1.2 Peptide Hydrolysis ..................................................... 357
13.2.2 Lipases in Reverse Micelles ...................................................... 359 13.2.2.1 Lipase Stability in Reverse Micelles ......................... 360 13.2.2.2 Lipase-Catalyzed Reactions in Reverse Micelles ..... 360
13.2.3 Oxidoreductases in W/O Microemulsions ................................ 365 13.3 Technical and Commercial Applications ............................................... 369
13.3.1 Biocompatible Microemulsions for Applications in the Pharmaceutical, Cosmetics, and Food Technology Domains ... 369
13.3.2 Product Recovery and Enzyme Reuse ...................................... 371 13.4 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 374 Symbols and Terminologies .............................................................................. 374 References ......................................................................................................... 375
Reverse micelles formed in water-in-oil (w/o) microemulsions, structurally inverse analogues to normal micelles, are capable of hosting proteins/enzymes in their so-called water pool. The biomolecule can be entrapped in the water pools, avoiding direct contact with the organic solvent, potentially limiting their
denaturation. Biocatalysis, based on reverse micelles, is one of the earliest approaches introduced to solubilize enzymes in nonpolar organic solvents [1-7]. A whole range of enzymes, including hydrolases (lipases, esterases, glucosidases, and proteases), oxidoreductases (peroxidases, oxygenases, and dehydrogenases), transferases (kinases), etc., as well as catalytic antibodies, exhibited catalytic activity in reverse micelles as shown in Table 13.1.
