Enzymes in Medicine
Enzymes can have good and bad effects to the body; it depends on the situation that they are being used in.
For example some bacteria is a lot more dangerous than others because of certain enzymes that they contain, meaning that they can do things such as (depending on the enzyme) duplicate faster, inhibit other enzymes and break down substrate’s that should not be broken down etc, in general cause more damage to its holder.
The unusual presence of an enzyme can give a diagnostic to a disease. For example if the liver is damaged or diseased then some of its enzymes will leak into the bloodstream. A blood test will check for this and give the doctor an idea as to what has happened. The leakage of enzymes into bloodstreams can easily be picked from blood tests meaning that doctors can find the root of the problem without having to do various tests and scans, to find out where the problem actually is.
Most genetic diseases are caused by an enzyme deficiency this in turn can be fixed by therapeutic enzymes, which replaces the enzymes, there by relieving some of the symptoms of a disease for a period of time.
Antibiotics contain enzymes which break down and destroy bacteria in organisms. However some bacteria will be resistant to the antibiotics used (possibly due to their enzymes acting as a non competitive inhibitor to the antibiotics enzymes) and will survive and duplicate meaning that the antibiotics used before will have no affect on this bacteria. This might lead to a different kind of antibiotic being used and the same thing happening as before or even worse there will be no antibiotics to get rid of this bacteria.
Enzymes In Industry
Enzymes are used in industry to make reactions and process’s occur at low temperatures and pressures, which otherwise would require expensive equipment for the reaction to operate at.
Advantages of Enzymes
In medicine, the body’s own enzymes have the potential to save lives even when not working (unusual presence). Enzymes can also be used to fix enzyme deficiency, which will improve the lifestyle of the people that are suffering from the genetic diseases.
Enzymes in industry are mainly used for enhancement of the rate of the reaction that takes place to form the product or they are used to enhance the product itself. For example enzymes can enhance foods by change of flavour and aroma, removal of unwanted flavours, enhancement of digestibility, modification of texture and final product appearance
Disadvantages of Enzymes
In industry the use of enzymes tends to add cost to the manufacture of the product thus making the final price higher. Enzymes can be expensive because once a reaction controlled by enzymes has finish the enzyme has to be both A) left in the final product and written off, meaning the industry has to buy a new enzyme for more stock, this can be expensive B) the enzyme is removed from the product and used again, this process depending on the enzyme can also cost a lot of money.
People have been known to suffer from allergic reactions due to enzymes in products. For example enzymes that have been put in biological detergents will react with stains on clothes; the enzyme will be left on the clothes and say if the person wearing the clothes that have been washed is allergic to that particular enzyme than he/she will suffer from an allergic reaction, possibly leading to death.
In medicine microbes which have increased function due to their enzymes could prove to be dangerous to organisms especially since antibiotics will fail to work against them.
Conclusion
In medicine, enzymes can work with organisms (antibiotics, enzyme leakages) and against us (bacteria).
However in industry enzymes are used for a different application, so that it could save the industry money over time or gain more money as a result of enzymes improving the image of its products.
References
A New Introduction to Human Biology
Understanding Biology for Advanced Level
