A century of enzyme kinetic analysis, 1913 to 2013

This review traces the history and logical progression of methods for quantitative analysis of enzyme kinetics from the 1913 Michaelis and Menten paper to the application of modern computational methods today. Following a brief review of methods for fitting steady state kinetic data, modern methods are highlighted for fitting full progress curve kinetics based upon numerical integration of rate equations, including a re-analysis of the original Michaelis-Menten full time course kinetic data. Finally, several illustrations of modern transient state kinetic methods of analysis are shown which enable the elucidation of reactions occurring at the active sites of enzymes in order to relate structure and function.

Some lessons about models from Michaelis and Menten

Michaelis and Menten's classic 1913 paper on enzyme kinetics is used to draw some lessons about the relationship between mathematical models and biological reality.

Walter Max Dale (formerly Deutsch) (1894-1969): pioneer and eminent radiobiochemist at the Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute, Manchester

The political upheaval in Germany in 1933 and subsequent movement of medical scholars with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation allowed Manchester to benefit from the arrival of Dr Walter Deutsch, later known as Dr Walter Dale. His research background enabled him to develop a radiobiochemistry laboratory at the Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute where he became a world authority on the effects of X-rays on enzymes and also the protective effect of additional solutes. In 1959 he initiated and then edited the International Journal of Radiation Biology. By the time of his retirement in 1962 the strength of his research resulted in his laboratory being recognized by the Medical Research Council.

[Oleksandr Solomonovych Tsyperovych--gifted enzymologist, scientist and practician]

Professor O. S. Tsyperovich (15.12.1910-20.12.1976), Doctor of biology, was born in the city of Odessa, graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry of Shevchenko Kyiv State University as a specialist in organic chemistry (1930-1935). In 1935-1941 he worked at the Institute of Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukr.SSR (Kyiv) as a junior research worker, and then as a senior research worker at the Department of Enzymology. In 1941 O. S. Tsyperovich defended the thesis for the Candidate's degree dedicated to the investigation of synthetic effect of proteolytic enzymes, and he was awarded the title of the senior research worker. In 1941-1945 O. S. Tsyperovich struggled in the ranks of the Soviet Army, was awarded the Red Star Order, medals For Defense of Caucasus, For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. In 1946-1976 O. S. Tsyperovich worked at the Institute of Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. When investigating the mechanism of proteins denaturation he discovered the phenomenon of their "denaturational stabilization". New technological schemes of production of pepsin preparations were elaborated on the basis of the method of autholysis proposed by him. In 1954 O. S. Tsyperovich defended the thesis for the Doctor's Degree and was awarded the order The Badge of Honor. Beginning from 1963 he headed the laboratory, and from 1966 -- the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of Enzymes, in 1969 the title of professor was conferred on him. In the 60-70's O. S. Tsyperovich investigated hydrolytic enzymes of microorganisms with the purpose of their use in industry. Thus, the method of production of the preparation "pronasa" from Streptomyces griseus was developed, aminopeptidases, dipeptidases, a-amylase, cellulases, were investigated. Investigations in the field of preparative enzymology resulted in the development of technological scheme for creation of the following drugs for the purposes of medicine: medical pepsin, preparation gastric juice, crystalline trypsin, highly purified chemotrypsin, highly purified trypsin, highly purified amylase which were introduced into industry. New methods of silver regeneration from photographic and cinema films with the use of proteinase of S. griseus were developed, as well as the enzyme-antibiotic preparation protezym for hydrolysis of fodder proteins which gave positive results in breeding calves and in feeding adult animals. O. S. Tsyperovich has proposed two simple structures of automatic collector of fractions for the column chromatography, published 178 scientific works including 3 monographs, 10 author's certificates; 12 candidates of science were brought up under his supervision.

Enzybiotics: A Look to the Future, Recalling the Past

The discovery and development of antibiotics was one of the greatest successes of Medicine in the 20th century and allowed the control of many diseases caused by microorganisms. Nevertheless, it is necessary to search constantly for new therapeutic tools in the continuing fight against disease-causing microorganisms and this probably leads us to today's concept of enzybiotics. Although microorganism-degrading enzymes have been known since the beginning of the last century, their use was soon forgotten because of the widespread use of antibiotics. The term enzybiotic is a hybrid word from "enzyme" and "antibiotic" and refers to phages: that is, viruses that attack and lyse bacteria and that can potentially help us to fight bacterial diseases. If the concept of enzybiotic is extended to antifungal enzymes, an enormous potential in the struggle against microorganism-due diseases may become available in the foreseeable future.

Clinical enzymology: an autobiographical history

In this paper, I review the origins of Clinical Enzymology with special emphasis on the years between 1960 and 1980 when the greatest advances in the subject took place. These are described in relation to my own research interests and contributions, focusing upon subclinical hepatic damage caused by viral infection and by alcohol; myocardial infarction; detection of cervical carcinoma by vaginal fluid analysis; evaluation of pancreatic function; and the clinical implications of microsomal enzyme induction. Reasons are proposed for the failure of enzymology to attain the status of an autonomous medical specialty, in contrast to the success of similar fields of knowledge that grew up in the same era.

Total chemical synthesis of enzymes

The total synthesis, at will, of a wide variety of protein and enzyme molecules is made feasible by modem chemical ligation methods. As Emil Fischer intuitively understood, synthetic access to the enzyme molecule enables the power of chemical science to be applied to elucidating the molecular basis of catalytic function in unprecedented detail.

The tortuous road to the adoption of katal for the expression of catalytic activity by the General Conference on Weights and Measures

BACKGROUND

The "unit" for "enzymic activity" (U = 1 micromol/min) was recommended by the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUB) in 1961 and is widely used in medical laboratory reports. The general trend in metrology, however, is toward global standardization through defining units coherent with the International System of Units (SI).

APPROACH

Several proposals were advanced from the IFCC, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and IUB regarding the definition for enzymic activity as well as the terms for kind-of-quantity, units, symbol, and dimension. In 1977, international agreement was reached between these bodies and WHO that "catalytic activity" (z), of a catalyst in a given system is defined by the rate of conversion in a measuring system (in mol/s) and expressed in "katal" (symbol, kat; equal to 1 mol/s). The katal is invariant of the measurement procedure, but the numerical quantity value is not. Gaining support for the katal from the final arbiter, the General Conference on Weights and Measures, was slow, but Resolution 12 of 1999 adopted the katal (symbol, kat) as a special name and symbol for the SI-derived unit, mol/s, used in measuring catalytic activity.

CONCLUSIONS

Laboratory results for amounts of catalysts, including enzymes, measured by their catalytic activity can now officially be expressed in katals and are traceable to the SI provided that the specified indicator reaction reflects first-order kinetics. The conversion from "unit" is: 1 U = 16.667 x 10(-9) kat. Further derived quantities have coherent units such as kat/L, kat/kg, and kat/kat = 1.

Molecular genetics and industrial microbiology--30 years of marriage

Thirty years ago, molecular genetics and industrial microbiology joined their hands in marriage. The event took place in Prague at the first Symposium on the Genetics of Industrial Microorganisms. My closing plenary lecture, titled "The Marriage of Genetics and Industrial Microbiology--After a long Engagement, a Bright Future," dealt with industrial uses of mutants, the lack of success with genetic recombination, control of branched and unbranched pathways and thoughts about the future, e.g., identifying the biochemical sites of beneficial mutations, exploitation of recombination and genetic means to increase production of enzymes. It is quite amazing that the Symposium was held 3 years before the advent of recombinant DNA technology. This important meeting was followed in 1976 by the first Genetics and Molecular Biology of Industrial Microorganisms (GMBIM) meeting in Orlando, all of the six subsequent GMBIM meetings being held in Bloomington, Indiana. Today, thousands of biotechnology companies are in existence making great progress in the pharmaceutical and agricultural sectors. Hundreds of new genetically engineered compounds, produced in microbial, mammalian or insect cells, are in clinical trails and many are already being marketed. The field is booming with new technologies such as transgenic animals and plants, site-directed mutagenesis, combinatorial biosynthesis, gene therapy, antisense, abzymes, high-throughput screening, monoclonal antibodies, PCR and many more. Agricultural biotechnology has made great strides but unfortunately its progress is being delayed by political controversy.

A view of the history of biochemical engineering

The authors present a view of biochemical engineering by describing their personal interests and experience over the years involving mostly conversion of lignocellulosics into fuels and chemicals and the associated engineering subjects.

Advances in enzyme technology--UK contributions

Enzyme technology has been a recognised part of bioprocess engineering since its inception in the 1950s and 1960s. In this article the early history of enzyme technology is discussed and the subsequent developments in enzyme isolation, enzyme modification and process technology are described. These creative developments have put enzyme technology in a position of huge potential to contribute to environmentally compatible and cost effective means of industrial chemical synthesis. Recent developments in protein modification to produce designer enzymes are leading a new wave of enzyme application.

A new approach to preparative enzymatic synthesis. Reprinted from Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. XIX, No. 9, Pages 1351-1361

A new approach to preparative organic synthesis in aqueous-organic systems is suggested. It is based on the idea that the enzymatic process is carried out in a biphasic system "water-water-immiscible organic solvent." Thereby the enzyme is localized in the aqueous phase-this eliminates the traditional problem of stabilizing the enzymes against inactivation by a nonaqueous solvent. Hence, in contrast to the commonly used combinations "water-water-miscible organic solvent," in the suggested system the content of water may be infinitely low. This allows one to dramatically shift the equilibrium of the reactions forming water as a reaction product (synthesis of esters and amides, polymerization of amino acids, sugars and nucleotides, dehydration reactions, etc.) toward the products. The fact that the system consists of two phases provides another very important sources for an equilibrium shift, i.e., free energies of the transfer of a reagent from one phase to the other. Equations are derived describing the dependence of the equilibrium constant in a biphasic system on the ratio of the volumes of the aqueous and nonaqueous phases and the partition coefficients of the reagents between the phases. The approach has been experimentally verified with the synthesis of N-acetyl-L-tryptophan ethyl ester from the respective alcohol and acid. Porous glass was impregnated with aqueous buffer solution of chymotrypsin and suspended in chloroform containing N-acetyl-L-tryptophan and ethanol. In water (no organic phase) the yield of the ester is about 0.01%, whereas in this biphasic system it is practically 100%. The idea is applicable to a great number of preparative enzymatic reactions.

History of the enzyme nomenclature system

Naming things is essential for people to understand one another, no matter what language or field of interest is involved. This is as true for enzymes, genes and chemicals as it is for birds, food, flowers, etc. Effective communication requires a lack of ambiguity, but, in practice, ambiguities abound even between people who use the same language in different parts of the world, or even within the same country. Whereas ambiguities in the words used for common objects or actions have been the basis for many, more-or-less memorable jokes, they can also cause a great deal of confusion. Such linguistic chaos is welcomed by many as being a part of a diverse heritage that should be preserved at all costs to prevent us from descending into Orwellian 'newspeak'. However, in the sciences, there are distinct advantages in others being able to understand what one is doing. Many groups have stressed the need for standardized, universally accepted systems of nomenclature in chemistry, genetics, enzymology, etc. However, it is the universal acceptance that usually causes the problem. It is rare to find people who will admit that they find nomenclature to be an interesting subject, but many who profess contempt for it will get very excited if it is suggested that their pet nomenclature should be changed in the interest of clarity or uniformity. This account will consider the development of the enzyme nomenclature system, its benefits, shortcomings and future prospects.