12 Applications of Enzymes | Their Uses in Medicine Food & Industries

Enzymes are naturally occurring bio-catalysts found in the living organisms.

There is no cell or tissue in the body which is devoid of an enzyme.

They facilitate many biochemical reactions in the body.

The enzyme reaction can be within the cell cytoplasm, nucleus or even outside the cell.

They require specific set of conditions for efficient function. These conditions include optimal temperature, pH, concentration of substrate etc.

But due to advanced knowledge and technology, these enzymes are isolated for human use by various methods.

So we can see many enzymes in the list of medicines prescribed by doctors today.

They are extracted and isolated from plants & animals and then stored for future use.

But how come they are stable outside the body?

They are so stable due to a process namely enzyme immobilization technique.

But due to growth is population and huge demand, they are also manufactured by the principle of recombinant DNA technology.

Due to many possible applications, the enzymes meant for one purpose by the nature are exploited for additional uses.

The current uses of enzymes include health care, industries of food, cloth, leather etc.

Applications of enzymes in medicine

Medical application of enzymes are quite large like

1. To treat enzyme related disorders.
2. To assist in metabolism
3. To assist in drug delivery.
4. To diagnose & detect diseases.
5. Also during manufacture of medicines.

1 Enzymes used to treat disorders:

Enzymes are used in three cases here

a) To break the internal blood clots.

b) To dissolve the hardening of walls of blood vessels.

c) To dissolve the wound swelling to promote healing.

In some disorders like low blood pressure, or head or spinal injuries, there are chances of formation of blood clots. These clots lead to obstruction of blood flow to the target organ. This can be life threatening if it is in the brain or heart which require constant supply of oxygen and energy. The only way out then is to dissolve the clots.

These clots are usually removed by dissolution by enzymes that can break them.

Examples of such enzymes like Streptokinase, Urokinase.

Similarly when there is atherosclerosis, hardening and thickening of blood vessel walls. This can lead to heart problems if untreated. The best way out at this junction is to decrease the fat intake and also dissolve the formed thickenings. Enzymes like serratopeptidase and other work well.

For wound healing, the swelling formed might be painful and tend to form pus. Enzymes trypsin, chymotrypsin, serratopepetidase are used to dissolve the swelling.

2 Enzymes used to assist metabolism: In old or geriatric patients, the digestive capacity is low due to insufficient secretion of digestive enzymes. Hence their digestive system cannot digest food materials efficiently. In such cases they can experience malnutrition, constipation, bloating etc. To aid digestion, enzymes like Papain are administered orally after food for easier digestion.

3 Enzymes used to assist drug delivery: Some drugs need to penetrate deeper tissues for better action. For this some enzymes are used along with drugs in intra-muscular injection forms to help proper penetration of tissues. One of the such enzyme is Hyaluronidase.

This is a natural human enzyme present in human sperm to help sperm penetrate uterine tissue and fertilize with ova. Here the same enzyme is manufactured by rDNA technology and administered along with drugs to enable efficient drug delivery to the target site.

4 Enzymes to diagnose disorders: Enzymes of liver, kidney, skeletal muscle, heart etc leak into blood during related disorders. Measuring the levels of the corresponding enzyme for their presence in high or low levels in blood indicates the specific disorder.

Ex: Creatine kinase for muscle weakness and injury.

Similarly by use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), they help to diagnose genetic diseases in prenatal stage for disorders like sickle cell anemia, Huntington’s disease, beta-thalassemia etc.

5  Enzymes used in manufacture of medicines: Immobilized enzymes are used in manufacture of many drugs and anti-biotic.This is possible as enzymes convert the pro-drug molecules to drugs or starting material to drugs. Also steroidal drugs are manufactured by enzyme action on plant steroids.

Refer application of immobilised enzymes for details.

Industrial enzymes and their applications

Enzymes are used in few industries for different purposes like improvement in product, ease of production etc.

Enzymes in food industry:

Uses of enzymes in food industry is to process carbohydrates, proteins & fats. The chief enzymes in food processing include

1) Amylase, lactases, cellulases are enzymes used to break complex sugars into simple sugars. They are used to mainly breakdown starch and cellulose into simple sugars like glucose. Lactase is enzymes used to break lactose sugars from foods as lactose can be intolerant to some people.

2) Pectinase like enzymes which act on hard pectin is used in fruit juice manufacture. Pectinase breaks pectin making  juice less viscous.

3) Lipase enzymes act on lipids to break them in fatty acids and glycerol. This can be used in baking industry. Yet fatty acids and glycerol obtained can be used in making soaps.

Applications of enzymes in leather industry:

Leather is obtained from skin of animals. The leather after being removed becomes hard due to denaturation of proteins and also the fats present in it. To obtain smooth and soft leather one need to remove the hair on the skin and also these proteins and fats in between the leather. This can be done by using enzymes like proteases and lipases.

Role of enzymes in cloth or textile industry: 

Cloth or textile are made of mostly cotton, wool or synthetic polymers. Natural cotton fabric are not as smooth and glossy. To give them smoothness and glossy appearance, enzymes like cellulase are used. Further the fabric size or thread thickness is controlled by treating with these amylase enzymes.

Catalase is used to remove any hydrogen peroxide residues after bleaching.

Enzymes in detergent and washing (household enzymes)

Clothes get soiled by stains of protein, oil or other substances. To remove these hard stains besides lather forming soap, some enzymes are incorporated in detergents.

Protease enzymes are used to remove stains of protein nature like blood, sweat etc.

Lipases are used to remove stains of grease, oils, butter etc.

Amylase is enzyme which can break carbohydrate stains like that of a chocolate, curries etc.