Global Areas of Enzyme Application
In modern medical and laboratory practice, enzymes are extremely widely used. Their application is traditionally divided into three main categories, each serving specific tasks:
- Enzymodiagnostics — the search for and evaluation of enzymes as diagnostic markers of pathological processes.
- Enzyme therapy — the direct administration of enzymes to a patient as medicinal products.
- Specific reagents — the application of enzymes in vitro for the precise quantitative determination of various metabolites.
Enzymes as Specific Analytical Reagents
Although enzyme therapy focuses on treatment, it is important to understand the role of enzymes in laboratory diagnostics. Due to their high specificity, they serve as ideal reagents for detecting the concentration of specific substances in the body's biological fluids.
Classic examples of reagent enzymes include:
- Glucose oxidase — indispensable for the quantitative determination of glucose levels in blood and urine samples.
- Urease — used for the accurate assessment of urea content in various biological fluids.
- Various dehydrogenases — used to detect and measure their respective substrates, such as pyruvate, lactate, as well as ethanol and other chemical compounds.
Main Directions of Enzyme Therapy
The clinical use of enzymes as drugs is based on two main principles. The physician chooses the approach depending on the pathology and the patient's general condition.
- Replacement therapy. This approach is used for the physiological or pathological deficiency of the body's own enzymes. Administered drugs take over the function of missing or underperforming enzymes.
- Elements of combination therapy. In this case, enzymes not only replace a function but are also combined with other treatments to achieve a maximum therapeutic effect.
Replacement Enzyme Therapy in Gastroenterology
The effectiveness of replacement enzyme therapy is most pronounced in the treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) tract diseases. Primarily, this concerns pathologies accompanied by insufficient secretion of digestive juices.
Therapy of Gastric Pathologies If a patient is diagnosed with gastritis accompanied by reduced secretory function, the enzyme pepsin is used as a replacement agent. It helps break down proteins, compensating for the lack of endogenous enzyme.
Therapy of Pancreatic Pathologies Deficiency of endogenous pancreatic enzymes occurring in pancreatic diseases is effectively compensated by taking specialized medications. They contain a set of basic enzymes necessary for proper digestion. Well-known drugs of this type include Festal, Enzistal, Mezim-forte, and their equivalents.