Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Hannah-lou-lou on 05/10/2008 16:50:12

Title: How are enzymes used in medicine?
Post by: Hannah-lou-lou on 05/10/2008 16:50:12: Hello I'm new to the forum!
Err i need to know the Answer to this Question.

How are Enzymes used In Medicine??

Any help will be much appreciated

thanks
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Title: Re: How are enzymes used in medicine?
Post by: rosy on 05/10/2008 18:49:06: Hello Hannah

Welcome to the forum.

First off, I'd just like to make the, um, passing observation that this is not a site where people will do your homework for you (if that's not what you're trying to achieve here, you possibly need to phrase your question differently.

That said, a areas you could consider researching are;
streptokinase (used in treatment of heart attacks),
deoxyribonuclease (used in treatment of cystic fibrosis),
asparaginase (used in treatment of acute lymphocytic leukaemia in children)
and the use of enzymes to treat enzyme deficiency diseases.

Also linked to medecine, enzymes are frequently used to select for one particular enantiomer in manufacturing drugs.

There are also "enzyme therapists" who claim that people need to take not only vitamin and mineral supplements (the jury is still out on this one in terms of the scientific evidence) but also enzyme supplements (still more questionable) to remain healthy. If you're interested in finding out about them there are any number of websites you can find by googling... all of them trying to sell you something.
Title: Re: How are enzymes used in medicine?
Post by: RD on 05/10/2008 19:53:59: Enzyme = biochemical catalyst.

Vitamins are required to create enzymes...

Quote
The largest number of vitamins (e.g. B complex vitamins) function as precursors for enzyme cofactor bio-molecules (coenzymes), that help act as catalysts and substrates in metabolism. When acting as part of a catalyst, vitamins are bound to enzymes and are called prosthetic groups. For example, biotin is part of enzymes involved in making fatty acids. Vitamins also act as coenzymes to carry chemical groups between enzymes. For example, folic acid carries various forms of carbon group – methyl, formyl and methylene - in the cell. Although these roles in assisting enzyme reactions are vitamins' best-known function, the other vitamin functions are equally important.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin
Title: Re: How are enzymes used in medicine?
Post by: rosy on 05/10/2008 20:24:23: RD... not sure what point you're making here, and whether it's in response to my post or Hannah's.

Hannah doesn't mention vitamins and it's not clear that, given she's talking about enzyme in medicine by which I suspect she means treatments such as deoxyribonuclease for CF etc etc, vitamins are entirely relevant.. I mean, of course one needs to have sufficient of a wide range of vitamins to produce/act as cofactors for enzymes and other proteins etc etc, but in the specific case of pre-synthesised enzymes given effectively as drugs the question of a healthy diet is just that and not really relevant to this topic.

I mentioned in passing the enzyme therapists who prescribe enzymes for "wellness" on the apparent assumption that even if a person is receiving sufficient of the relevant vitamins they will still be unable to synthesise the proteins to form the rest of the enzymes. The general form of the websites selling these products doesn't lead me to suppose that there's any reason to suppose there's any strong scientific basis for this claim (but it's not my area of expertise).