Describe The Role Of Enzymes In Metabolism – Medically reviewed by Avi Varma, MD, MPH, AAHIVS, FAAFP — Tim Newman — Updated December 8, 2023

Enzymes assist in specific functions that are vital to the functioning and overall health of the body. They help speed up chemical reactions in the human body. They are essential for breathing, digesting food, muscle and nerve function, and much more.

Describe The Role Of Enzymes In Metabolism

Each cell in the human body contains thousands of enzymes. Enzymes provide assistance in facilitating chemical reactions within each cell.

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Are proteins, although some are ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules. RNA molecules translate information from DNA and make proteins.

Enzymes help in the chemical reactions that keep humans alive and healthy. For example, they perform a necessary function for metabolism, the process of breaking down food and drink into energy.

Enzymes accelerate (catalyze) chemical reactions in cells. Rather, they lower the threshold necessary to trigger the intended reaction. They do this by binding to another substance known as a substrate.

The “lock and key” model was first proposed in 1894. In this model, the active site of an enzyme is of a specific shape and only the substrate will fit into it, like a lock and key.

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A more recent model, the induced fit model, helps to account for reactions between substrates and active sites that do not fit exactly.

In this model, the active site changes shape as it interacts with the substrate. Once the substrate is fully locked and in the correct position, catalysis can begin.

Enzymes can only work under certain conditions. Most enzymes in the human body function best at about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (F) (37°C), which is typical body temperature. At lower temperatures, they can still work, but much more slowly.

If the temperature is too high or if the medium is too acidic or alkaline, the enzyme changes shape; this changes the shape of the active site so that substrates cannot bind to it. This is denaturation.

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Different enzymes tolerate different levels of acidity. For example, enzymes in the intestines work best at around pH 8, while enzymes in the stomach work best at around pH 1.5 because the stomach is much more acidic.

Ions are inorganic molecules that bind loosely to an enzyme to ensure that it can function. In contrast, coenzymes are organic molecules that also bind weakly and allow the enzyme to do its job.

To ensure that the body’s systems work properly, it is sometimes necessary to slow down enzyme function. For example, if an enzyme is making too much product, the body needs a way to reduce or stop production.

Thousands of enzymes in the human body exist to perform about 5,000 different functions. A few examples include:

Basics Of Enzymes

Experts break down enzymes into several different types based on the functions they perform in the body. Different kinds

Enzymes play a big role in the daily work of the human body. Enzymes work by combining with molecules to start a chemical reaction. They work best at specific pH levels and temperatures.

They play a vital role in the proper functioning of the digestive system, nervous system, muscles and more.

Medical News Today has strict sourcing guidelines and draws only from peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We avoid using tertiary references. We link to primary sources—including studies, scientific references, and statistics—within each article and also list them in the resources section at the bottom of our articles. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and up-to-date by reading our editorial policy. Drug disposition in the body includes absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME). ADME is an important part of the drug design process, which studies the outcome of a drug molecule after administration. It is a complex process involving transporters (Pgp) and metabolizing enzymes (CIP P450) with physiological consequences on pharmacological (synergism and antagonism) and toxicological effects, and can play a major role in drug design to identify better drug molecules in a more efficient way. . Metabolism of drugs in the body is a complex process of biotransformation where drugs are structurally modified into different molecules (metabolites) by different metabolizing enzymes. Drug metabolism studies are key processes to optimize lead compounds for optimal pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties, to identify new chemical molecules (Zhang et al., 2018)

Important Role Of Enzymes In Metabolism

Drug metabolism occurs in many places in the body, the main site of CIP metabolism is the liver, and other sites are the intestinal wall, lungs, kidneys and plasma. Detoxification and excretion of xenobiotics (foreign drugs or chemicals) occurs in the liver by enzymatic conversion of lipid-soluble compounds to water-soluble compounds. herbal ingredients, drugs, pesticides, cosmetics, flavors, fragrances, food additives, industrial chemicals and environmental pollutants. It is estimated that humans are exposed to 1-3 million xenobiotics in their lifetime. Most of these chemicals that gain access to the body through food, air, drinking water, drug administration and lifestyle choices undergo a wide range of detoxification processes that generally make them less toxic, more polar and easily excreted (Patterson et al., 2010).

Pharmaceutical drugs, xenobiotics, as well as endogenous products are metabolized by a variety of cytochrome P450s (CIPs) that are widely distributed in the body. CIPs are composed of numerous isozymes that have different metabolic roles and substrate specificities, each of which has a distinct effect on the rate of absorption and bioavailability of pharmaceutical drugs in the body. Products that alter P450-dependent drug metabolism, especially those that are not maladaptive, can therefore have significant cascading effects on health (Scott et al., 2006).

Cytochrome P450 enzymes (CIPs) are membrane-bound hemoproteins inside the cell. Induction or inhibition of cytochrome P450 e enzymes are the main mechanism underlying drug-drug interactions. CIP enzymes can be transcriptionally activated by various xenobiotics and endogenous substrates through receptor-dependent mechanisms. Inhibition of CIP enzymes by many drugs is a major mechanism for drug-drug interactions based on metabolism. Many chemotherapeutic drugs can cause drug interactions due to their ability to inhibit or induce the CIP enzyme system (Palrasu et al., 2018).

Drugs that inhibit cytochrome P450 may increase the plasma concentration of other drugs used at the same time, leading to drug interactions. Many other enzyme systems are inhibited by drugs, and enzyme inhibition may be the main mechanism of drug action. When two or more drugs are used at the same time, one drug can affect the effect of the other (Calvei et al., 2005).

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Enzymes are proteins that help speed up metabolism or chemical reactions in our bodies. Enzymes are essential for digestion, liver function and more, our bodies naturally produce enzymes. But enzymes are also found in industrial products and food. The specificity of the enzyme is determined by the active site, a specific domain of the peptide molecule. There are two main theories that seek to explain the enzyme-substrate interaction. One – proposed by Fischer at the beginning of the 20th century – states that the enzyme-substrate interaction would resemble a key-lock mechanism, in which the key (substrate) fits into the lock (active site), since two conditions are met: the substrate and the active site have complementary structures and compatible polarity and size. The second – proposed by Koshland in 1960 – states that the substrate in the vicinity of the enzyme molecule induces some structural modifications on it that favor the fit of the enzyme and the substrate (Vitolo et al., 2019).

Two main types of inhibition 1.reversible 2.irreversible (or quasi-irreversible) the second type is a mixed type Enzyme inhibitors are molecules e.g. It has a hole (active site) in which a substance (substrate) can be transformed into another compound (product), which can bind to the enzyme and reduce its activity (Deodhar et al., 2020).

1. Reversible inhibition occurs as a result of competition at the active site of the enzyme and almost positively involves only the first step of the P450 catalytic cycle. Binding to the enzyme is usually via weak bonds, which are both easily formed and broken down. Consequently, reversible inhibitors act quickly but do not permanently destroy the enzyme.

In the non-competitive mode of inhibition, the active binding site of the substrate and the inhibitor are different from each other. In practice, mixed-type inhibition is often observed, showing elements of competitive and non-competitive inhibition (Olavi et al., 2008) (Patadiia et al., 2021).

Top 3 Functions Of Enzymes In The Body

Induction and inhibition are the basic cytochrome P450 enzyme (CIP) mechanisms by which drug-drug interactions occur), such as mechanism-based inhibition. Each type of interaction involves a specific clinical management strategy. Today, the characteristics and regulatory factors of various CIP enzymes have been largely elucidated. Detailed mechanisms of inhibition were revealed by studies of isolated or expressed enzymes and tissue fractions. Nuclear receptors as important transcription factors for xenobiotics and as regulators of CIP induction have been elucidated (Hakkola et al., 2020).

Frequent use of certain drugs leads to increased synthesis (transcription or translation), or induction, of P450 enzymes. Enzyme induction increases the metabolism of all drugs

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