Development of a high efficient biocatalyst by oriented covalent immobilization of a novel recombinant 2′-N-deoxyribosyltransferase from Lactobacillus animalis

The 2'-N-deoxyribosyltransferases [NDT; EC 2.4.2.6] are a group of enzymes widely used as biocatalysts for nucleoside biosynthesis. In this work, the molecular cloning, expression and purification of a novel NDT from Lactobacillus animalis (LaNDT) have been reported. On the other hand, biocatalyst stability has been significantly enhanced by multipoint covalent immobilization using a hetero-functional support activated with nickel-chelates and glyoxyl groups. The immobilized enzyme could be reused for more than 300 h and stored during almost 3 months without activity loss. Besides, the obtained derivative (Ni2+-Gx-LaNDT) was able to biosynthesize 88 mg floxuridine/g biocatalyst after 1 h of reaction. In this work, a green bioprocess by employing an environmentally friendly methodology was developed, which allowed the obtaining of a compound with proven anti-tumor activity. Therefore, the obtained enzymatic biocatalyst meets the requirements of high activity, stability, and short reaction times needed for low-cost production in a future preparative application.