RSC Adv. 2026 Jul 31. doi: 10.1039/d6ra03766f. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

NADPH-dependent biocatalysis is widely used for the synthesis of valuable chemicals, and maintaining an effective NADPH pool during catalysis is critical for its performance. Although cofactor regeneration has been extensively studied, the maintenance of the NADPH pool in complex biocatalytic environments, such as crude-enzyme and whole-cell systems, has received comparatively limited attention. Herein, we found that phosphate analogue additives improved NADPH maintenance in crude-enzyme and whole-cell biocatalytic systems, thereby improving catalytic efficiency. Improved NADPH maintenance was observed in both GDH- and FDH-based regeneration systems. In multiple catalytic systems, including reductase-catalysed reactions, monooxygenase-catalysed reactions, a redox deracemisation cascade, and a multienzyme whole-cell system, catalytic performance was improved by up to approximately 6-fold. These results highlight that maintaining the effective NADPH pool can serve as a simple and cost-effective strategy to improve NADPH-dependent biocatalysis in complex catalytic environments.

PMID:42540071 | PMC:PMC13425076 | DOI:10.1039/d6ra03766f