Abstract

A polyelectrolyte is a polymer composed of repeating units of an electrolyte group that enables reversible complex formation with proteins in aqueous solutions. This review introduces “wrap-and-strip” technology of protein–polyelectrolyte complex (PPC) by noncovalent interaction. Storage: protein is stabilized against physical and chemical stresses. Enrichment: precipitation through PPC can be used as an enrichment method without irreversible unfolding. Catalytic activity switch: a complementary charged pair of polyelectrolytes functions as a reversible enzyme activity switch. Hyperactivation: a specific combination of a polyelectrolyte and substrate enhances enzyme activity by one order of magnitude compared with an enzyme alone. Stabilization: PPC increases protein stability against chemical and physical stresses, such as covalently modified polyethylene glycosylated protein. Simple PPC-based technology can expand the applicable fields of soluble proteins in aqueous solutions.

Keywords: Antibody, enzyme, enrichment, polyelectrolyte, enzyme activity, aggregation, precipitation.