Enzyme Applications, Therapeutic

Enzymes are used for the treatment of a broad variety of diseases by virtue of the fact that they catalyze chemical reactions with great speed and specificity. The principal therapeutic applications of enzymes are as thrombolytic agents capable of rapidly lysing the clots which cause, or contribute to, myocardial infarction, phlebitis, pulmonary embolisms, occluded catheters, and allied conditions; as oral or parenteral replacement therapy for genetic diseases attributable to a deficiency of a specific enzyme or family of enzymes; in oncology, for the control of the growth of select neoplasms or leukemias; and as antidotes to poisons or as counteragents capable of mitigating the delirious effects of toxins, etc. With the advent of DNA technology, strategies for preparing enzymes of human origin for human use have become readily available, thus circumventing the dual problems of immunogenicity and toxicity which are often encountered with enzyme-proteins of bacterial origin. Making projections to the future, it is anticipated that therapeutic enzymes of human origin will play an increasingly important role in future strategies for controlling a variety of disease states. Keywords: Enzymes; Therapeutic uses; Cancer chemotherapy; Thrombolytic enzymes; Replacement therapy; Antidotes; immobilized enzymes; Conjugates; Erthrocytic entrapment