Enzymes and Their Clinical Applications

Enzymes are proteinaceous molecules which catalyze the chemical reactions in biological systems. Enzymes are found in almost all tissues and fluids of the body. They are responsible for maintaining the animal’s homeostasis and body’s all significant life processes depend on its enzyme activity. Enzymes accelerate the rate of reactions but never participate in any kind of biochemical reactions. Clinical enzymology is the study of enzymes which deal with applications of enzymes for diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The measurement of enzyme concentration in serum, plasma, and other body fluids is used as an indicator of organ disfunctioning or development of disease in a particular organ. There are a number of enzymes which are used for diagnostic purposes, such as aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), are used in investigation of liver disease and creatine kinase (CK) for muscular disorder, muscle damages, and brain injury. Similarly, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is a marker of hepatocyte damage and muscle damage and hemolysis; alkaline phosphatase (ALP) for liver disease, osteosarcoma, pancreatic carcinoma, pancreatitis, hepatic necrosis, induction of drugs/hormones; acid phosphatase (ACP) for prostate cancer, bone diseases, lysosomal disorders; amylase (AMS) for diagnosis of pancreatitis and renal failure. Lipase is used as a marker for extra pancreatic neoplasia, pancreatic acinar cell damage, and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-PD) is used for disorder in spleen thymus, and erythrocytes.