Therapeutic enzymes are one of the most promising applications of this century in the field of pharmaceutics. Biocatalyst properties can be improved by enzyme immobilization on nano-objects, thereby increasing stability and reusability and also enhancing the targeting to specific tissues and cells. Therapeutic biocatalyst-nanodevice complexes will provide new tools for the diagnosis and treatment of old and newly emerging pathologies. Among the advantages of this approach are the wide span and diverse range of possible materials and biocatalysts that promise to make the matrix-enzyme combination a unique modality for therapeutic delivery. This review focuses on the most significant techniques and nanomaterials used for enzyme immobilization such as metallic superparamagnetic, silica, and polymeric and single-enzyme nanoparticles. Finally, a review of the application of these nanodevices to different pathologies and modes of administration is presented. In short, since therapeutic enzymes constitute a highly promising alternative for treating a variety of pathologies more effectively, this review is aimed at providing the comprehensive summary needed to understand and improve this burgeoning area.

Alginate lyase (AL) from Sphingobacterium multivorum is unsuitable for oral delivery because of its rapid inactivation under acidic conditions. The synthesis of a novel crosslinking enzyme aggregate (CLEA) of AL (AL-CLEA) is proposed. AL precipitation with 95% ammonium sulfate and combined with low methoxylated pectin (LMP), showed 100% precipitation yield. Crosslinking with glutaraldehyde reduced the AL-CLEA activity to less than 1%, but addition of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and LMP during AL-CLEA synthesis increased the activity yield to 14.7%. AL-CLEA exposed to simulated gastric conditions (pH 1.2 to 3.0) showed more than 70% retention of enzymatic activity. Moreover, AL-CLEA showed thermal stability at temperatures over 37 °C. Stability against chemical denaturants (ethanol, acetone and propylene glycol) showed that AL-CLEA was 14 times more stable than free AL in all cases. Finally, a 25% viscosity reduction of alginate solution was achieved with AL-CLEA. This is the first report of AL-CLEA synthesis and evaluation.