Enzymes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Enzymes - Essay Example The amino acid chain carries a unique shape which is tailor made to help the chemical reaction necessary for the amino acid to perform a specific action. Enzymes can therefore be considered to be catalysts for specific actions or reactions such as in the case of food digestion. These enzyme reactions are chemical processes that happen quite fast an are actually unnoticeable. In human beings, Digestive Enzymes are highly important in the process of breaking down digested food and its transformation into energy proteins. An enzyme is basically a part of the human DNA chain. The DNA of a person serves as the instruction manual of the biological system in the production of protein cells, which, for the basis of this research, we will call enzymes. Therefore, the Human Gene, which is a part of the DNA serves as the template of the human body in forming an enzyme. These enzymes are stored within cells which are molded and shaped for easy chemical recognition and reaction. This chemical pro cess will be discussed further within this paper. Scientists have been studying the importance of enzymes to the human anatomy for well over a century. The earliest enzyme studies date all the way back to 1835 when Swedish biochemist Jon Jakob Berzelius first recognized and named the actions he observed within the enzymes as catalytic. But it was not until 1926 when Cornell University's James B. Sumner was able to extract an enzyme in its purest form from a jack bean which he was able to successfully isolate and crystallize. He won the Noble Peace Prize in 1947 for this remarkable accomplishment. However, he shared this honor with two other people, John H. Northtrop and Wendell M. Stanley of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. They developed a precipitation technique which was used to crystallize several enzymes (Introduction to Enzymes, 2). Enzymes all come into existence because of proteins. These particular proteins have high molecular weight compounds ranging from 10 ,000 - 2,000,000 and are composed of amino acids linked by peptide bonds (Introduction to Enzymes, 2). Enzymes cannot be taken for granted in the daily function of the human body. It is the most vital chemical component of our system because our heart, lungs, liver, eyes, skin, basically all our major and minor organs are dependent upon enzymes in order to keep our body in running condition. Without these enzymes, our body will not be able to prevent degenerative diseases, we will are at a rapid pace, and our energy will not be able to sustain our daily physical functions. Think of the enzymes as the monetary currency of our body. When we eat, we put a deposit into our enzyme bank where it is broken down by digestive enzymes and completely digested in order to insure the absorption of nutrients which our body can draw upon whenever our energy level runs low. If our body is deprived of enzymes, it will cease to function and will eventually die out. One must bear in mind however that since enzymes comprise different chemical needs of the human system, these chemical reactions that are necessary in order to sustain human life only occur when necessary. In actuality, the enzymes inside the cell direct which particular chemical will be triggered and created in order to sustain the energy level of a person. In order to reach this equilibrium state at the fastest possible time, enzymes lower the activation energy needed for a chemical reaction. This biochemical reaction numbers about 4,000 but the enzyme that serves as the catalyst is not consumed by the reactions which is why there is no alteration in the equilibrium and metabolic pathway of these reactions. These metabolic pathways are created by several enzymes working