Intracellular Catalysis

The biological environment, which is tightly regulated for the living organism and not always suited for the reaction efficiency of a particular reaction pathway segment, limits intracellular catalysis. A possible method for controlling biological processes is known as "bioorthogonal chemistry," which is any chemical reaction that may take place inside of living systems without interfering with their natural biochemical processes. The toolset of bioorthogonal chemistry for medicinal chemistry and synthetic biology has substantially increased with the introduction of synthetic metal-based catalysts to carry out bioorthogonal processes. Many distinct homogeneous and heterogeneous transition metal catalysts (TMCs) have been identified, mediating various transformations such cycloaddition events as well as bond building and cleaving reactions. However, there are several difficulties with using 'naked' TMCs directly in complex biological environments, including low water solubility, toxicity, and catalyst deactivation. The decorating of the nanocatalysts is employed to give spatiotemporal control of catalysis. TMCs may be incorporated into nanomaterials to form bioorthogonal nanocatalysts, which can solubilize and stabilise catalyst molecules.