Enzymes: What makes them so special?

A biological catalyst- that's the brief but extremely accurate definition of an enzyme. A catalyst is something that speeds up a chemical reactions. Within our bodies this ranges from digestion to respiration on a microscopic level within our cells. Enzymes are responsible for so many chemical reactions in our bodies and that's what makes them so special. Read on to learn more! 

Enzymes are these small protein structures with specific and unique shape. The shape of an enzyme is vital to its role in chemical reactions. To briefly summarise the structure of an enzyme it simply has something called a "active site" and some may have a "allosteric site". The enzyme active site has a further unique structure and is commonly explained as a "lock" as each lock has a specific shape as well as its own keys. The "key" in this scenario would be the a substrate which is another structure with is complementary to the enzyme active site and therefore can fit the enzymes active site ; much like a lock and key. The specificity of the enzyme and active site is what makes them son special as they may only bind to each other and only then will the chemical reaction take place. However a  biological catalyst cannot be used up and as such the enzymes substrate will form a new shape after the chemical reaction in order to go on and bind to another enzyme for a separate chemical reaction. 

Often enzymes can be underestimated in their importance. However if they were no enzymes our bodies would not be able to survive as they are responsible for key functions in our bodies. I've already mentioned respiration and digestion but enzymes are also found in our liver, our saliva and are even involved in DNA replication- all of which are essential to a bodies survival. Thee are few theories as to how the enzymes bind to a substrate with the two main ones being: the lock and key hypothesis and the induced fit model.

Enzymes work the best at their 'optimum' PH, temperature as well as concentrations of enzymes and substrates. Each optimum level is also unique to each enzymes. An example of this would be the enzyme Helicase  (which is involved In DNA replication) has a different optimum PH to the enzyme Lipase (found in the gut) due to their different conditions.

Overall Enzymes are a protein that should never be overlooked. Feel free to add to fill out the comments section or get into contact of you have any questions about enzymes!

Written by : Safaa Khan