The presence of enzymes is vital in diagnosing disease. For example when the liver is diseased or damaged, enzymes only found normally in the liver leak into the bloodstream. Testing the blood for these activities is used to confirm liver damage. Enzymes are used as medicines, usually to replace enzyme deficiencies. An example is the use of blood clotting factors to treat hemophilia, or the opposite where proteases are used to degrade fibrin. Use of proteases can prevent the formation of dangerous blood clots. Nuclease is considered as a possible therapy for cystic fibrosis, but it is not clear how successful this has been.
Proteases are used in wound therapy. They are called debriding agents and are used to clean a wound and quicken the healing process. Some proteases are used as anti-inflammatory reagents. The chemical synthesis of complex drugs is difficult and companies use enzymes to perform chemical conversions.
Enzymes are used to aid digestion, both in humans and animals. Enzymes are used to supplement the natural amylase, lipase and protease produced by the pancreas. Many ethnic groups have lactose intolerance, this means as these people get older they lose the enzyme lactase. They cannot ingest milk or dairy products. Lactase supplements help to avoid stomach upsets for these people. According to a report, there is scarcely a top athlete who is not familiar with enzyme therapy. The top Austrian athletes are provided with enzyme capsules as a precaution to aid in rapid recovery after an injury.
There are lots of advantages of using enzymes in medicine. Many enzymes are specific, producing more of the desired product, and fewer by-products. This is important in the manufacture of drugs, where the side products may be toxic. Enzymes can carry out reactions for which chemical catalysts are unknown: these are finding uses for making specialty chemicals and new drugs.
Enzymes are widely used by industry – the global market is estimated at US$1.5 billion, and set to grow by 5–10% per year. The detergent, food and starch processing industries still account for 75% of ‘bulk’ enzyme use.
Biotechnology is any application of machines to living organisms, or the study of the interactions of organisms and technological devices. Many industrial biotechnology products, such as beer, antibiotics or enzymes, are produced by growing microorganisms, under highly controlled conditions in fermenters. All reactions that take place inside the fermenter are enzyme controlled. Cells from other organisms, plants or animals, can also be grown in this way, and used to produce large amounts of valuable products. A valuable purple dye called shikonin is produced in this way in Japan from a plant that was almost extinct, the dye was originally extracted from the roots of 7-year-old plants, but can now be harvested from cells in culture after 20 days.
Enzymes are used as catalysts in industry. Catalysts make it possible for the reaction to proceed by an alternative pathway with a different activation energy. Catalysts play an important part in many industrial reactions. Enzymes are biological catalysts that enable specific reactions to take place. Catalysts are widely used in industry, to increase the rate of a reaction, or allow the reaction to take place without resorting to high temperatures and pressures. One of the most important and widely used enzymes in industry and everyday life is the catalytic converter in cars. They are devices incorporated into the exhaust system of cars which use catalysts to convert pollutant gases into harmless products.
About 60% of enzymes are the product of modern biotechnology, and new uses are being developed for environmental, food, agricultural and textile industry uses. There are potential commercial applications in the food and health industries as non-digestible carbohydrate, an agent that prevents tooth decay, and to prevent baked goods going stale.
Cellulases are complexes of enzymes which break down the cellulose polymers of plant tissue. Cellulases produced by a fungus, Trichoderma are used for ‘stonewashing’ jeans – but their activity has to be carefully controlled to get the desired effect without destroying the cotton material. Changing the relative proportions of the enzymes in the cellulase complex creates different effects; true ‘designer jeans’.
Enzymes, such as amylases and proteases, are being added to animal feed to supplement the animals’ own enzymes and improve digestion. Most animal feedstuffs are plant-derived and contain ‘anti-nutritional factors’ that interfere with digestion in a variety of ways. Many of these factors are non-starch polysaccharides, from cereal grains. Adding enzymes to feedstuffs increases the nutritional value of feeds by breaking down these factors, aiding digestion and making nutrients more easily absorbed.
Many enzymes have been genetically modified to improve their useful properties. For example, the enzyme used in washing powders has been modified to make it more stable at temperatures used for washing, and less likely to be inactivated by the high temperatures. Due to engineering techniques, enzymes have made it possible to obtain the highest possible yield from a reaction.
There are many advantages of using enzymes over chemical catalysts. In manufacturing processes, enzymes often work at lower temperatures and pressures, and therefore save energy, thus saving money. Many enzymes are more efficient than their chemical counterparts, and do not require toxic chemical solvents to work, producing less waste and pollution, so are less damaging to the environment. Despite these advantages, much research and development is needed to make them cost-effective and able to compete economically with their chemical counterparts.
Bibliography
Internet
CD Rom
The Oxford Interactive Encyclopedia
Text Book
AQA Biology – A New Introduction to Biology
AS Biology – Jones & Hopkins
