Enzymes Catalytic Proteins

Enzymes are globular proteins whose sole function is to catalyze biochemical reactions. The most important properties of all enzymes are their catalytic power, specificity and capacity to regulation. The characteristics of enzymes (Bagg, 2004 Copeland, 2000 Kuby, 1991 Price and Stevens, 2000) can be summarized as  

Molecular structures are available for many enzymes and can be viewed at the Web site maintained by the Biomolecular Structure and Modehng Group at University College in London (http //www.biochem.ucl.ac.uk/bsm/enzymes/index.html) 

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Most reactions in cells are carried out by enzymes [1], In many instances the rates of enzyme-catalysed reactions are enhanced by a factor of a million. A significantly large fraction of all known enzymes are proteins which are made from twenty naturally occurring amino acids. The amino acids are linked by peptide bonds to fonn polypeptide chains. The primary sequence of a protein specifies the linear order in which the amino acids are linked. To carry out the catalytic activity the linear sequence has to fold to a well defined tliree-dimensional (3D) stmcture. In cells only a relatively small fraction of proteins require assistance from chaperones (helper proteins) [2]. Even in the complicated cellular environment most proteins fold spontaneously upon synthesis. The detennination of the 3D folded stmcture from the one-dimensional primary sequence is the most popular protein folding problem. 

In free CDK2 the active site cleft is blocked by the T-loop and Thr 160 is buried (Figure 6.20a). Substrates cannot bind and Thr 160 cannot be phosphorylated consequently free CDK2 is inactive. The conformational changes induced by cyclin A binding not only expose the active site cleft so that ATP and protein substrates can bind but also rearrange essential active site residues to make the enzyme catalytically competent (Figure 6.20b). In addition Thr... 

Biocatalysis Chemical reactions mediated by biological systems (microbial communities, whole organisms or cells, cell-free extracts, or purified enzymes aka catalytic proteins). 

Enzymes are proteins of high molecular weight and possess exceptionally high catalytic properties. These are important to plant and animal life processes. An enzyme, E, is a protein or protein-like substance with catalytic properties. A substrate, S, is the substance that is chemically transformed at an accelerated rate because of the action of the enzyme on it. Most enzymes are normally named in terms of the reactions they catalyze. In practice, a suffice -ase is added to the substrate on which die enzyme acts. Eor example, die enzyme dial catalyzes die decomposition of urea is urease, the enzyme dial acts on uric acid is uricase, and die enzyme present in die micro-organism dial converts glucose to gluconolactone is glucose oxidase. The diree major types of enzyme reaction are ... 

Like many other antibodies, the activity of antibody 14D9 is sufficient for preparative application, yet it remains modest when compared to that of enzymes. The protein is relatively difficult to produce, although a recombinant format as a fusion vdth the NusA protein was found to provide the antibody in soluble form with good activity [20]. It should be mentioned that aldolase catalytic antibodies operating by an enamine mechanism, obtained by the principle of reactive immunization mentioned above [15], represent another example of enantioselective antibodies, which have proven to be preparatively useful in organic synthesis [21]. One such aldolase antibody, antibody 38C2, is commercially available and provides a useful alternative to natural aldolases to prepare a variety of enantiomerically pure aldol products, which are otherwise difficult to prepare, allovdng applications in natural product synthesis [22]. 

Moreover, an electron transfer chain could be reconstituted in vitro that is able to oxidize aldehydes to carboxylic acids with concomitant reduction of protons and net production of dihydrogen (213, 243). The first enzyme in this chain is an aldehyde oxidoreductase (AOR), a homodimer (100 kDa) containing one Mo cofactor (MOD) and two [2Fe—2S] centers per subunit (199). The enzyme catalytic cycle can be regenerated by transferring electrons to flavodoxin, an FMN-con-taining protein of 16 kDa (and afterwards to a multiheme cytochrome and then to hydrogenase) ... 

Enzymes are exceptionally efficient catalytic proteins which increase the speed of a chemical reaction without themselves undergoing a permanent change. Under optimal conditions, most enzymatic reactions proceed from 10 to 10 times more rapidly than the corresponding non-enzymatic reactions. For example, one molecule of catalase, the enzyme which converts hydrogen peroxide into water and atomic oxygen, is able to deal with approximately 5 million molecules of H2O0 per minute. 

Enzymes are catalytic proteins. Their active site can, for example, be a carboxylic or an amino group, embedded in a specific geometry. 

Enzymes are proteins catalyzing all in vivo biological reactions. Enzymatic catalysis can also be utilized for in vitro reactions of not only natural substrates but some unnatural ones. Typical characteristics of enzyme catalysis are high catalytic activity, large rate acceleration of reactions under mild reaction conditions, high selectivities of substrates and reaction modes, and no formation of byproducts, in comparison with those of chemical catalysts. In the field of organic synthetic chemistry, enzymes have been powerful catalysts for stereo- and regioselective reactions to produce useful intermediates and end-products such as medicines and liquid crystals. ... 

The enzymes are protein molecules having globular structure, as a rule. The molecular masses of the different enzymes have values between ten thousands and hundred thousands. The enzyme s active site, which, as a rule, consists of a nonproteinic organic compound containing metal ions of variable valency (iron, copper, molybdenum, etc.) is linked to the protein globule by covalent or hydrogen bonds. The catalytic action of the enzymes is due to electron transfer from these ions to the substrate. The protein part of the enzyme secures a suitable disposition of the substrate relative to the active site and is responsible for the high selectivity of catalytic action. 

Enzymes are proteins, i.e. sequences of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. The sequence of amino acids within the polypeptide chain is characteristic of each enzyme. This leads to a specific three-dimensional conformation for each enzyme in which the molecular chains are folded in such a way that certain key amino acids are situated in specific strategic locations. This folded arrangement, together with the positioning of key amino acids, gives rise to the remarkable catalytic activity associated with enzymes. 

Enzymes are protein molecules that possess exceptional catalytic properties. They are essential to plant and animal life processes. Enzymes are remarkable catalysts in at least three respects activity, specificity, and versatility. 

With the exception of a small group of catalytic RNA molecules, all the enzymes are proteins. Their molecular weights, as for other proteins, range from about 12,000 to over 1 million Dalton. 

It is worth mentioning that membrane-bound forms of GC, which can be considered signal transducing enzymes , are structurally homologous to other signal transducing enzymes, such as certain protein tyrosine kinases and phosphatases, which also possess receptor moieties in their extracellular (amino terminus) domain and enzyme catalytic activity in their intracellular domain (see Ch. 24). Activation of many of these receptors occurs upon ligand-induced dimerization of the receptors, and a similar... 

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze many reactions, particularly biochemical reactions, including many necessary for the maintenance of life. The catalytic action is usually very specific, and may be affected by the presence of other substances both as inhibitors and as coenzymes.1... 

All enzymes are proteins although many are conjugated proteins and are associated with non-protein groups. Their catalytic activity depends on the maintenance of their native structure and slight variations may result in significant changes in this activity. 

Although haemoglobin is not a catalytic protein, it shares important features in common with enzymes, for example ligand binding, allosterism and inhibition . Before continuing, the reader should ensure familiarity with the concepts of allosterism as described in Section 3.2. 

From the results reported to date, it seems that the manner in which haptens are attached to carrier proteins leads to significant differences in certain cases. Clearly, haptens designed with aromatic moieties between the linkage to the immunogenic carrier protein and the TSA motif often have better antibody recognition. Recently, Hilvert pointed out that on both micro and macro levels, mechanistic improvements arise as a function of time. The differences in time scales for the evolution of natural enzymes and antibodies — millions of years versus weeks or months — also appear to be an explanation of the low efficiency of antibody catalysts. He also highlighted that the unique immunoglobulin fold has not been adopted by nature as one of the common scaffolds on which to build enzyme catalytic machinery. Therefore, antibody structure itself places limitations on the kind of reactions amenable to catalysis. 

Life is sustained by a complex web of chemical reactions. Catalysts, molecules that accelerate the rate of a chemical reaction but that are unchanged by the overall reaction, are essential for life as most reactions would otherwise occur far too slowly. Indeed, it can be argued that the evolution of life is essentially the story of the evolution of catalysis. In nature, most catalysts are proteins and these catalytic proteins, or enzymes, are one of the most remarkable classes of molecules to have been generated during evolution. Enzymes catalyze an enormous range of different reactions and their performances typically far exceed those of man-made catalysts. They can accelerate reactions by anything up to 10 -fold relative to the uncatalyzed reaction, enabling reactions that would otherwise have half-lives of tens of millions of years to be performed in milliseconds. 

Enzymes are biological catalysts—i. e substances of biological origin that accelerate chemical reactions (see p. 24). The orderly course of metabolic processes is only possible because each cell is equipped with its own genetically determined set of enzymes. It is only this that allows coordinated sequences of reactions (metabolic pathways see p. 112). Enzymes are also involved in many regulatory mechanisms that allow the metabolism to adapt to changing conditions (see p.ll4). Almost all enzymes are proteins. However, there are also catalytically active ribonucleic acids, the ribozymes" (see pp. 246, 252). 

Water in oil microemulsions with reverse micelles provide an interesting alternative to normal organic solvents in enzyme catalysis with hydrophobic substrates. Reverse micelles are useful microreactors because they can host proteins like enzymes. Catalytic reactions with water insoluble substrates can occur at the large internal water-oil interface inside the microemulsion. The activity and stability of biomolecules can be controlled, mainly by the concentration of water in these media. With the exact knowledge of the phase behaviom" and the corresponding activity of enzymes the application of these media can lead to favomable effects compared to aqueous systems, like hyperactivity or increased stability of the enzymes. 

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