Why Enzymes Are Important in Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment?

Enzymes, early referred to the meaning of “in yeast”, is actually a kind of biological catalysts produced by living cells in organisms, most of which are generally globular proteins. The enzymes can efficiently catalyze various biochemical reactions and promote the metabolism of organisms under conditions in the normal body. Life activities such as digestion, absorption, respiration, exercise and reproduction are all enzymatic reactions. Therefore, Enzymes are the basis for cells to survive.

There are numerous enzymes in the human body, which are complex in structure and various in variety. As far as we know, more than 3,000 kinds of enzymes have been discovered, such as pepsin, trypsin and other hydrolases. The protein that the human body takes from food must be hydrolyzed into amino acids under the activities of pepsin. More than 20 kinds of the amino acids required are selected under the function of other enzymes, which then recombined into other various proteins needed by the human body. Many complicated reactions occurred in the whole process. It can be said that without enzymes biological metabolism will not continue and thus the whole colorful biological communities in the natural world will disappear. Now we have known how crucial the enzymes are in living organisms, and that is why enzymes can be applied to clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Enzymes in the Diagnosis of Disease

Enzymatic diagnosis is a method to diagnose diseases by measuring the content and changes of certain substances in the body, or through the changes of the original enzyme activity in the body. It is obvious that enzymatic diagnostic methods based on two aspects: changes in the original enzyme activity in the body and changes of certain substances in body fluids, which is detected by enzymes. Phosphatase is a hydrolase that catalyzes the hydrolysis of phosphate monoester into inorganic phosphate under acidic conditions. Serum acid phosphatase activity will be elevated in the body of patients with prostate cancer or hyperparathyroidism. Another examples: glucose oxidase can be used to detect glucose content in diabetes diagnosis; urease can be used to measure the urea content to diagnose liver and kidney lesions; cholesterol oxidase can be used to measure the content of cholesterol in the blood to diagnose hyperlipidemia; glutaminase can be used to measure glutamine content in cerebrospinal fluid to diagnose cirrhosis and hepatic coma; DNA polymerase can be used to test whether the gene is normal or whether there is any oncogene exists in the body. Due to the unique enzyme characteristics of specificity, high-catalytic efficiency and mild action conditions, the enzymatic diagnosis has become a reliable, simple and rapid diagnostic method.

Enzymes in Diseases Prevention and Treatment

 You may not know that enzymes can be used as medicines to treat a range of diseases which is called medicinal enzyme. For example, trypsin can be used not only to accelerate wound healing and dissolve blood clots, but also to remove necrotic tissue and inhibit the proliferation of contaminating microorganisms; L-asparaginase can be used to treat cancer by depriving nutrients needed by the growth of cancer cells and protease (like multi-enzyme tablets) can be used to treat dyspepsia and have an anti-inflammatory effect. In addition, lipase, superoxide dismutase, L-asparaginase, nattokinase, soybean meal plasmin, thrombin, etc. can be used for the treatment of diseases. Furthermore, many enzymes are used as diagnostic reagents in medical treatment. Because of its characteristics of remarkable curative effect and insignificant side effects, the medicinal enzymes have more and more applications in the health area.

Enzymes in Medicine Production

The process of producing various drugs by enzymes is to convert precursor substances into drugs by enzyme catalytic activities, which is called enzymatic production of drugs. The use of enzymes in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals is augmentative. A number of drugs, including some rare and expensive drugs, are now produced by enzymatic methods. For example, penicillin acylase can be used to produce semi-synthetic antibiotics; β-tyrosinase can be used to produce dopa; arabinoadenosine is produced by nucleoside phosphorylase; Achromobacter protease produces human insulin; polynucleotide phosphorylase produces polymyocytes; and β-D-glucosadenylase produces anti-tumor ginsenosides.

It is obvious from the above that enzymes play an irreplaceable and significant role in the field of clinical diagnosis and treatment. As a part of bioengineering, the important function and research results of enzyme have been recognized by the world. It has become our main goal to fully utilize the catalytic function, expand the application range, and improve the application efficiency of enzymes, and Creative Enzymes, as an enzyme manufacturer, are endeavoring to do so.