Potential use of oxidative enzymes for the detoxification of organic pollutants

The ability of peroxidases and laccases enzymes to treat organic pollutants is reviewed. Enzymatic methods generally have low energy requirements, are easy to control, can operate over a wide range of conditions and have a minimal environmental impact. Peroxidases and laccases have broad substrate specificities and can catalyze the oxidation of a wide range of toxic organic compounds. The results show that an enzymatic oxidation can diminish the toxicity of some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phenols, organophosphorus pesticides and azo dyes in laboratory and some field conditions. Due to the hydrophobicity and low aqueous solubility of these substrates, reactions are usually performed in the presence of organic solvents. However, it was detected that organic solvents can provoke enzyme denaturation, unfavorable substrate partition, inhibition or stabilization of enzyme-substrate complexes, depending on the enzyme, substrate and organic solvent used. Strategies to overcome these problems are proposed. Additionally, the low stability of heme-containing peroxidases to hydrogen peroxide, the low reaction rates of laccases, the mediators toxicity, the limited availability and high costs of these enzymes are other limitations detected for commercial applications. Due to field reaction conditions are more complex than laboratory conditions efforts have to be made to achieve the cheap overproduction of these biocatalysts in heterologous hosts and also their modification by chemical means or protein engineering to obtain more robust and active enzymes. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.