Enzymes: The Invisible Powerhouses Running Your Body

Pharmacy
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Every second of your life, billions of chemical reactions occur inside your body due to enzymes; without enzymes, most of them wouldn’t happen.

What Are Enzymes?
Enzymes - A substance produced by a living organism that acts as a catalyst to bring about a specific biochemical reaction.

Classification of Enzymes
Enzymes are classified under two broad categories :

  1. Intracellular enzymes – They are functional within cells where they are synthesised.
  2. Extracellular enzymes – These enzymes are active outside the cell; all the digestive enzymes belong to this group.

The International Union of Biochemistry (IUB) appointed an enzyme commission in 1961, which advised on the basic principles for the classification of enzymes. Since 1964, the IUB system of enzyme classification has been followed. In the IUB system of enzyme classification, enzymes are divided into six(6) major classes.
Each class on its own represents the general type of reaction performed by enzymes of that class.

  1. Oxidoreductases: Enzymes involved in oxidation-reduction reactions.
  2. Transferases: Enzymes that catalyse the transfer of functional groups.
  3. Hydrolases: Enzymes that bring about the hydrolysis of various compounds.
  4. Lyases: Enzymes specialised in the addition or removal of water, ammonia,
    CO2 etc.
  5. Isomerases: Enzymes involved in all the isomerisation reactions.
  6. Ligases: Enzymes catalysing the synthetic reactions (Greek: ligate—to bind)
    where two molecules are joined together, and ATP is used.

Major Roles of Enzymes in the Human Body:

  1. Digestion - By speeding up the breakdown of large, complex food molecules into smaller, absorbable nutrients.
  2. DNA Replication and Repair - By positioning other molecules to facilitate the breaking and forming of chemical bonds.
  3. Detoxification - By converting fat-soluble toxins into more water-soluble, less toxic compounds that can be easily excreted from the body.

Factors Affecting Enzyme Activity:

  1. Temperature: Most human enzymes work best at ~37°C
  2. pH: Each enzyme has an optimal pH (e.g., pepsin in acidic stomach conditions)
  3. Substrate concentration
  4. Concentration of enzymes
  5. Inhibitors: Competitive and non-competitive inhibitors can reduce enzyme activity

Enzymes are the invisible powerhouses running your body, silently ensuring that life’s chemistry works with speed, precision, & efficiency.

MBH/PS

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Great summary! It’s incredible to think that without these biological catalysts, the chemical reactions keeping us alive would take years instead of milliseconds. The IUB classification breakdown is especially helpful for keeping the different functions clear. Thanks for sharing!

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Yes, Enzymes are invisible powerhouses and they are like super smart helpers in our body that serves as biological catalysts speed up chemical reactions. protein enzymes like cytp450 mainly involved phase 1 metabolism through oxidation reactions and also play major role in hormonal synthesis.

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