Before we ask what kind of artificial enzymes are being produced for any purpose, we first have to know what an enzyme is. An enzyme is most commonly a protein, and is used as a biological catalyst that speeds up chemical reactions by lowering the needed activation energy for a reaction, thus increasing the rate at which that reaction can be performed. Enzymes perform a variety of functions, and so, they are considered an interesting possibility for various industrial purposes.
For years, industries and companies have been modifying existing enzymes and using them in products, but only recently have they began creating fully artificial enzymes. What are artificial enzymes however? Artificial enzymes are synthetic molecules that are able to replicate the role of an enzyme. They do not necessarily replace an existing enzyme, as they can sometimes be made to do something no other enzyme does. Recently scientists at the university of Minnesota created an artificial enzyme that joins two pieces of RNA together completely from scratch by using directed evolution which is a process that involves breeding a large amount of the target organism and then only allowing those individual organisms that show the desired traits to reproduce . The enzyme they created was not like most other enzymes, because it had a differently shaped structure and it was flexible. The scientists theorize that this is what enzymes may have looked like in primordial times, and have over time evolved into what they are today.
While that is very interesting and potentially useful from a scientific perspective, there are plenty of more immediate uses in various economic fields. Natural enzymes have long been used by the Pharmaceutical industry, so it isn’t a surprise that they are interested in artificial enzymes. Scientists in Vienna have created nano-machines that are able to completely mimic the actions of proteins. These nano-machines can be used as drug delivery mechanisms or act as enzyme-like catalysts, but more stable. Another group of scientists in Zurich and California created an artificial enzyme pictured below:
This artificial enzyme is able to catalyze 700 substrate molecules per second. The fastest natural enzyme only got up to 430 molecules per second. While the scientists are not currently using the enzyme for any particular purpose, they hope that they can use it as a stepping stone to create even more efficient enzymes.
Clearly artificial enzymes have their uses, and will become even more widespread in the future, but what will be their effects on society? Since the most likely application of artificial enzymes appears to be in medicine and in pharmaceuticals, there will most likely be artificial enzymes that people put into their bodies to improve their health. This may pose the threat of artificial enzymes having unpredictable health effects, similar to the arguments against GMO’s. Overall, however, this appears to be a great breakthrough in biochemistry.
Works cited list:
Fraser, D. LeDrew, B. Vavitas, A. &White-McMahon, M. (2010). Biology 12. Toronto, ON: Nelson
University of Minnesota (2013, January 30). First artificial enzyme created by evolution in a test tube. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
University of Vienna (2013, February 17). ‘Bionic proteins’: Nano-machines recreate protein activities. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
Blomberg R, Kries H, Pinkas DM, Mittl PRE, Grütter MG, Privett HK, Mayo SL, Hilvert D: Precision is essential for efficient catalysis in an evolved Kemp eliminase. Nature, published online 16 October 2013. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
Image works cited List
bionewsblog 