A chemoenzymatic reaction-diffusion system with local inhibition and distal activation

Rishi Ram Mahato, Niranjani Adikessavane, Nandha Kumar Ettikkan and Subhabrata Maiti ()
Additional contact information
Rishi Ram Mahato: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali
Niranjani Adikessavane: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali
Nandha Kumar Ettikkan: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali
Subhabrata Maiti: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Spatiotemporal gating in signal transduction and corresponding activation or inhibition of a biochemical pathway is the hallmark of biological functionality. Herein, through both experimental and computational approaches, we developed a synthetic system to mimic one of the key biological signaling events - local inhibition and distal (long-range) activation (LIDA). The basis of our system lies in the differential diffusivity of – (i) injected dormant activator or pro-activator (Pro-A, urea, fast to diffuse due to non-binding with nanoparticle (NP) in gel matrix) that converts to activator (A, ammonium bicarbonate) via an enzyme (urease) embedded in the hydrogel) and (ii) inhibitor (IN, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), diffusion restricted due to interaction with NP). Here A and IN act as the activator and inhibitor of a base-catalyzed proton transfer reaction in the gel matrix, respectively. The indispensability of ProA to A conversion during diffusion for efficient time-regulated LIDA effect has also been demonstrated. The ability to input spatial gating of pH and reaction activation can potentially be extrapolated to develop neuromorphic self-assembled systems with distal programmability.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65605-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-65605-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65605-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().