Diisopropyl-fluorophosphatase as a Catalytic Bioscavenger

Organophosphorus chemicals, used as pesticides and warfare nerve agent, are highly toxic compounds that inhibit acetylcholine esterase enzyme rapidly. A novel effective treatment for nerve gas poising is using of hydrolytic enzymes to degradation of these agents. Diisopropyl-fluorophosphatase (DFPase) from Loligo vulgaris is highly stable and robust biocatalyst for the hydrolysis of various chemical warfare agents such as sarin, soman, tabun. Unfortunately, wild-type DFPase prefers less toxic isomers of these agents leading to slower detoxification. Also, due to non-human origin of the enzyme, immunological reactions occur when it is injected into body. In order to using DFPase as in vivo detoxifying agent, some manipulations to augment of its efficiency and to decrease of immunogenic problems are needed. Modifications such as PEGylation is one of the possible solutions to conquer these problems. Engineering of the enzyme for creating of new efficient variants is an interesting research field which leads to occurrence of novel and prominent bioscavenger, and delivery of these functional molecules to circulation in order to enzymatic hydrolysis of toxic agents would be the final object of research efforts.