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Nature programs the structural folding of an enzyme that allows its on-demand biofunctionality; however, it is still a long-standing challenge to manually modulate an enzyme's conformation. Here, we design an exogenous hydrogen-bonded organic framework to modulate the conformation of cytochrome c, and hence allow non-native bioactivity for the enzyme. The rigid hydrogen-bonded organic framework, with net-arranged carboxylate inner cage, is in situ installed onto the native cytochrome c. The resultant hydrogen-bonded nano-biointerface changes the conformation to a previously not achieved catalase-like species within the reported cytochrome c-porous organic framework systems. In addition, the preserved hydrogen-bonded organic framework can stabilize the encapsulated enzyme and its channel-like pores also guarantee the free entrance of catalytic substrates. This work describes a conceptual nanotechnology for manoeuvring the flexible conformations of an enzyme, and also highlights the advantages of artificial hydrogen-bonded scaffolds to modulate enzyme activity.
Chen et al. (Tue,) studied this question.