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Therapeutic enzymes: Enzymes are actually used as medicines, usually to replace enzyme deficiencies in patients. An example is the use of blood clotting factors to treat haemophilia, the use of proteases can prevent the formation of dangerous blood clots. The protease used in therapy of thromboembolic diseases infarction, (deep venous thrombosis, (or else known as economy class syndrome)) is called tissue plasminogen activator. The Nuclease enzyme is considered as a possible therapy for cystic fibrosis.
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Proteases are also used in wound therapy. In this case they are called debriding agents and are used to clean a wound and therefore accelerate the healing process.
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Some proteases are also used as anti-inflammatory reagents. An enzyme called super oxide dismutase is also available as an anti-inflammatory agent.
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Drug manufacture: The chemical synthesis of complex drugs is often difficult and companies frequently turn to enzymes to perform chemical conversions, this is a cheaper and more effective and faster way.
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Enzymes are also used to aid digestion (like the ancient Chinese herbal men), both in humans and animals. In humans, enzymes are used to supplement the natural amylase, lipase and protease produced normally by the pancreas. Many ethnic* groups also have a problem called lactose intolerance. This means as these people get older they lose the enzyme lactase (converts lactose into glucose and galactose). This means they cannot ingest milk or dairy products. Lactase supplements help to avoid stomach upsets for these people. * taken from a medical survey in the UK.
These are just a few uses of enzymes in medicine but the medicine market is increasing as new enzymes uses are discovered.
Enzyme technology in industry is vast, the uses of enzymes cover from agricultural uses to textile uses. They have advantages over inorganic catalysts, they work at room temperatures therefore decreasing thermal charges, they work within moderate PH levels so there is no need to replace corrosive containers if the PH level is to acidic or alkaline. Enzymes also involve producing one type of isomer so no unwanted by products are formed. Culturing microbes to produce extra cellular enzymes is cheap and effective and easy to get the enzymes because the enzyme is secreted and can easily be removed.
The following show some uses of enzymes in industry;
Enzymes in baking, to give rise to breads, agricultural uses to allow grass to be easily digested in cows to produce faster milk, brewing to produce perfect beer, detergents to produce biological washing powders, to preserve food or flavouring, making paper and tissue from wood easier and enzymes in leather industry to dehair animal hides.
I will explain the uses of detergents, fermentation and textiles in more detail.
Fermentation: Wine making is essentially involves the fermentation of grape juice. The extraction of the grape juice is however a more complicated process than other fruit juices as the extraction of flavour components and colours (in the case of red wines) is far more important.
Problems in winemaking are the frequent infection of the grapes by the fungus Botrytis cinerea which produces beta-glucans which pass into the wine. These large molecular glucans hinder the clarification of the wine by clogging the filtration devices. The addition of beta-glucanases enzymes can overcome this effect.
Other specialist uses of enzymes in wine making include the addition of proteases to improve colour stability in red wines by reducing the binding of polymerised tannins to proteins and the use of glycosidase to hydrolyse terpenyl glycosides thereby increasing the aroma or bouquet of the wine.
Detergents: Enzymes have been used in the detergent industry since the mid 1960's and is probably the best known application of industrial enzymes especially in laundry products - called "biological" washing powders, liquids and tablets.
The main enzyme activity in biological laundry detergents is protease which acts on organic stains such as grass, blood, egg and human sweat. However, it has become more common in recent years to include a "cocktail" of enzyme activities including lipases and amylases. Lipases are effective on stains resulting from fatty products such as oils and fats (and lipstick!!!!) whilst amylases help remove starchy food deposits.
Protein + Water subtilisin Peptides and Amino Acids
More recently, colour enhancing and "anti-bobbling" washing powders have been developed which contain celluloses. It is thought that the mode of action of such celluloses is to remove detached cellulose fibrils which cause a progressive dulling of the colour as dirt is trapped on the rough surface of the fabric.
The use of enzymes in automatic dishwashing detergents is also becoming popular. Typical enzyme activities are protease and amylase to remove food particles. Such new products are more environmentally-friendly as they contain less bleaching agents and phosphates, they also lower washing temperatures to reduce the painful heating bills.
Textiles: Enzymes have been used in the leather industry for many years and more recently have been introduced into modern textile industries.
The main applications of enzymes in the leather industry are proteases which help in the dehairing of the animal hides and lipases are used for degreasing.
Modern fabrics are reinforced with an adhesive called "the size" before weaving. This prevents breaking of the warp threads. Starch is the most common ingredient of the size, combined with lower quantities of other materials such as gelatine and carboxymethylcellulose (cellulose that has been treated to make it water soluble). Harsher chemicals such as alkalis or acids have been traditionally used for desiring, but are now being replaced by enzymes. Apart from the environmental benefit of replacing harsh chemicals with biodegradable enzymes, enzymes have turned out to be less harsh on the main fabric as well.
The finishing of denim jeans has also become a popular application for celluloses in the textile industry. Traditionally denim was stonewashed with pumice stones to fade the surface of the garment. A small application of cellulose can replace many of the stones resulting in less damage to the garments and machinery. This technique has become known as Bio stoning and can result in much greater fading without high abrasive damage both to the actual fabric and any other accessories (buttons, rivets) on the fabric. Stonewashing enzymes are usually available as either “acid” celluloses (optimum activity around 4.5) or "neutral" celluloses (optimum activity at just below pH 7.0
Bibliography:
www.encarta.com
AS Level Biology
Hutchinson’s Encyclopaedia 99
Oxford encyclopaedia
American science magazine
Biology basic facts terms book
