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Enzymes and health |
Importance of Enzymes in our health |
An enzyme (in Greek en = in and zyme = blend) is a protein, or protein complex, that catalyzes a chemical reaction and also controls the 3D orientation of the catalyzed substrates. Like any catalyst, enzymes work by lowering the activation energy of a reaction, thus allowing the reaction to proceed to its steady state or completion much faster than it otherwise would; the enzyme (again, as with any catalyst) remains unaltered by the completed reaction and can therefore continue catalysis.
Enzymes are essential to living organisms, and a malfunction of even a single enzyme out of approximately 2,000 types present in our bodies can lead to severe or lethal illness. An example of a disease caused by an enzyme malfunction in humans is phenylketonuria (PKU). The enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase, which usually converts the essential amino acid phenylalanine into tyrosine does not work, resulting in a buildup of phenylalanine that leads to mental retardation. Enzymes in the human body can also be influenced by inhibitors. Aspirin, for example, inhibits an enzyme that produces prostaglandins (inflammation messengers), thus suppressing pain and inflammation. Enzymes are also used in everyday products such as washing detergents, where they speed up chemical reactions involved in cleaning the clothes (for example, breaking down blood stains). Enzymes are necessary within biological cells to control molecular shapes and because many chemical reactions would occur too slowly to sustain life; oxidation of organic food compounds to provide energy, for instance. Enzymes may speed up biochemical reactions by a factor of one thousand times or more. They also provide a means to control the reaction rates by modulating enzymatic activity.
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