The Application of Enzymes in Industry and Medicine Enzymes are proteins, made up of polypeptide chains of amino acids. They are biological catalysts to regulate the speed of many processes, and are used in industry and medicine, but in different ways. Enzymes are globular proteins, with their structure held together by hydrogen bonds and can therefore be denatured easily if these bonds are broken. This is because their structure is very important in the way they work. They have an active site, which is the area in which substrates are broken down into product molecules, and if this is altered the enzyme can no longer function. Immobilised enzymes are attached to inert insoluble materials so that the enzymes can be held in place during the reaction, removed and reused. Enzymes are used in industry because they speed up reactions producing products which can be used as they are, or can be used to make different products. They can be used whilst within cells or micro-organisms, or they can be extracted and isolated. They are often immobilised once extracted, so that the enzymes can be reused. One example of how enzymes are used in industry is in detergents. They have been used since the mid 1960's and are used in biological washing powders, tablets and liquids, and are also used in dishwashing detergents. There are many different enzymes used in these detergents, because enzymes are specific therefore different ones are needed to target different stains. Proteases are used which act on protein-based stains from substances such as egg, grass, blood, meat and human sweat. Lipases in detergents act on stains from fat and oil based ... ... middle of paper ... ...ood clotting enzymes are used to treat haemophilia and cause the blood to clot, and proteases are used in blood thinning treatments to prevent dangerous blood clots. It is thought that enzymes may be able to treat genetic diseases but at present it is not possible to easily target specific cells that need treatment, for example mucus cells in the lungs of cystic fibrosis sufferers could be targeted and made to stop producing excess mucus. Without enzymes, many products would be impossible to manufacture, or the processes used to make them would be made much more costly and less simple to use. The use of enzymes in medicine is incredibly important in treating many diseases, which could otherwise be fatal. Bibliography www.enzymes.co.uk www.sbu.ac.uk/biology/enztech/medical Encarta 96 Encyclopedia
Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d., pp. 113-117. Web. The Web.
Enzymes are biological catalysts, which are proteins that help speed up chemical reactions. Enzymes use reactants, known as the substrates, and are converted into products. Through this chemical reaction, the enzyme itself is not consumed and can be used over and over again for future chemical reactions, but with the same substrate and product formed. Enzymes usually only convert specific substrates into products. Substrates bind to the region of an enzyme called the active site to form the enzyme/substrate complex. Then this becomes the enzyme/products complex, and then the products leave the enzyme. The activity of enzymes can be altered based on a couple of factors. Factors include pH, temperature and others. These factors, if they become
Proteins are one of the main building blocks of the body. They are required for the structure, function, and regulation of the body’s tissues and organs. Even smaller units create proteins; these are called amino acids. There are twenty different types of amino acids, and all twenty are configured in many different chains and sequences, producing differing protein structures and functions. An enzyme is a specialized protein that participates in chemical reactions where they serve as catalysts to speed up said reactions, or reduce the energy of activation, noted as Ea (Mader & Windelspecht).
Background information:. Enzyme Enzymes are protein molecules that act as the biological catalysts. A Catalyst is a molecule which can speed up chemical reactions but remains unchanged at the end of the reaction. Enzymes catalyze most of the metabolic reactions that take place within a living organism. They speed up the metabolic reactions by lowering the amount of energy.
Enzymes are biological catalysts - catalysts are substances that increase the rate of chemical reactions without being altered itself. Enzymes are also proteins that fold into complex shapes that allow smaller molecules to fit into them. The place where these substrate molecules fit is called the active site. The active site is the region of an enzyme where substrate molecules bind and undergo a chemical reaction. The active site consists of residues that form temporary bonds with the substrate and residues that catalyse a reaction of that substrate. (Clark, 2016)
Enzymes have the ability to act on a small group of chemically similar substances. Enzymes are very specific, in the sense that each enzyme is limited to interact with only one set of reactants; the reactants are referred to as substrates. Substrates of an enzyme are the chemicals altered by enzyme-catalysed reactions. The extreme specific nature of enzymes are because of the complicated three-dimensional shape, which is due to the particular way the amino acid chain of proteins folds.
Enzymes in general are very interesting to learn from and are fundamental in carrying out processes in various organisms. Enzymes are proteins that control the speed of reactions, they help quicken the rate of the reaction and also help cells to communicate with each other. There are 3 main groups of enzymes, first are the metabolic enzymes that control breathing, thinking, talking, moving, and immunity. Next are the digestive enzymes that digest food and normally end with –ase, there are 22 known digestive enzymes and examples of these are Amylase, Protease, and Lipase. The final group are the Food or plant enzymes which is what my enzyme that I’m studying falls under. Papain gets its name because it comes from papaya fruit, its main purpose is to break down proteins and break peptide bonds however it is not only used in the Papaya fruit and has many external uses. It was also very helpful in the 1950s when scientists were trying to understand enzymes. It also helps us to this day understand Protein structural studies and peptide mapping. Without enzymes, reactions in the body would not happen fast enough and would tarnish our way of life which is why it is vital that we study and learn from them.
Enzymes have been used in research, mainly because of their ability to facilitate reactions without being changed themselves as well as their ability to speed up these reactions, which would otherwise take a much longer period of time to complete. And it is these two features that compel me to conduct further research into the applications of enzymes.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Enzymes in Medicine and Industry What is an enzyme? = == ==
Encyclopedia Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Web.
Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to explore the different factors which effect enzyme activity and the rates of reaction, such as particle size and temperature.
Enzymes are types of proteins that work as a substance to help speed up a chemical reaction (Madar & Windelspecht, 104). There are three factors that help enzyme activity increase in speed. The three factors that speed up the activity of enzymes are concentration, an increase in temperature, and a preferred pH environment. Whether or not the reaction continues to move forward is not up to the enzyme, instead the reaction is dependent on a reaction’s free energy. These enzymatic reactions have reactants referred to as substrates. Enzymes do much more than create substrates; enzymes actually work with the substrate in a reaction (Madar &Windelspecht, 106). For reactions in a cell it is important that a specific enzyme is present during the process. For example, lactase must be able to collaborate with lactose in order to break it down (Madar & Windelspecht, 105).
Enzymes are protein molecules that are made by organisms to catalyze reactions. Typically, enzymes speeds up the rate of the reaction within cells. Enzymes are primarily important to living organisms because it helps with metabolism and the digestive system. For example, enzymes can break larger molecules into smaller molecules to help the body absorb the smaller pieces faster. In addition, some enzyme molecules bind molecules together. However, the initial purpose of the enzyme is to speed up reactions for a certain reason because they are “highly selective catalysts” (Castro J. 2014). In other words, an enzyme is a catalyst, which is a substance that increases the rate of a reaction without undergoing changes. Moreover, enzymes work with
Investigating a Factor that Affects Enzyme Activity Planning -------- Aim --- To investigate a factor which will affect the activity of catalase, whilst keeping all variables constant. Possible Independent Variables ------------------------------ Here are a number of possible independent variables that could be changed in the experiment: Independent variable Continuous/Discontinuous Easy to measure?