What are enzymes

Written By The HealthMeth Team - Updated On Friday, February 5, 2021 4:00 PM

Enzymes

Enzymes are defined as proteins that act as catalysts inside living cells, as these catalysts increase the rate of chemical reactions occurring, without consuming or changing their shape, as a chemical reaction is a process of combining one or more chemicals, such as reagents, with a substance from Another type of product, in which the enzyme facilitates a chemical reaction as a catalyst. [1]


Enzyme combination

The enzyme consists of one or more long interconnected chains of amino acids, and each enzyme has a unique chain of amino acids, which makes it a distinctive shape, and the amino acid enzyme sequence is determined from a specific gene in the cell nucleus, where each gene of the same type contains the same The copy of the enzyme , as there is a slit on the surface of each enzyme called the active site, and chemicals in it, such as reagents, can interact, as the enzyme absorbs a certain type of reagents, and a certain type of reaction, as each enzyme is responsible for only one type of chemical reaction that Can be stimulated. [1]


The importance of enzymes

The biological processes that occur inside all living things are known as chemical reactions, and the enzymes regulate these reactions, and without the enzymes, many of these reactions would not take place, just as enzymes stimulate the work of the cell, and this includes the digestion of food, where macronutrient molecules such as proteins and carbohydrates are broken down. And fats into smaller molecules , then preserving and converting chemical energy, building cellular molecules, in addition to the fact that many genetic diseases that afflict humans result from a deficiency of a specific enzyme, such as: leprosy disease, and phenylketonuria, and on the other hand, enzymes have uses In industry as well, where it was used in ancient times in wine fermentation, bread fermentation, and curdling of cheese, and after the nineteenth century, enzymes were used in medicine, through their use to kill disease-causing microorganisms, accelerate wound healing, and diagnose some disease cases.[2]


Enzyme action

The efficiency of the enzyme activity is measured by the rotation rate of 10 6 , where the rate of rotation measures the number of molecules of the compound in which the enzyme works per molecule per second, such as: the carbonic anhydrase enzyme, which removes carbon dioxide from the blood, by binding it to water , and one molecule of An enzyme can produce a million molecules of carbon dioxide per second, and most enzymatic reactions take place under a certain temperature ranging between 30-40 degrees Celsius, a feature that reflects their complexity as biological molecules. [3]


References

  1. ^ A b "What ' are On Enzymes? - Definition & Explanation ' " , Www.study.com , Retrieved 5-12-2017. Edited.
  2. "Enzyme" , www.britannica.com , 12-5-2017, Retrieved 28-12-2017. Edited.
  3. "enzyme: Enzymatic Action" , www.infoplease.com , Retrieved 5-12-2017. Edited.