Enzymes

Enzymes are macromolecules with biocatalytic function to accelerate chemical reactions. Most enzymes are proteins, while some others are catalytic RNA called ribozymes. Metabolic pathways in cells depend on enzymes to catalyze individual steps. Enzymes are indispensable in various functions of living organisms and play key roles in almost every physiological/pathological process such as signal transduction, cell regulation, metabolism, activity control and digestion.

Enzyme catalysis is needed in almost all metabolic processes in order to sustain life, and most processes in biological cells require the presence of enzymes to occur at significant rates. Strict control of enzyme activity is essential for homeostasis. Any malfunction of key enzyme, including mutation, overproduction, underproduction or deletion, can lead to diseases. Therefore, enzymes have long been considered as important drug targets for the treatment of major human diseases and identifying possible ligand-enzyme interactions is essential in many drug discovery processes. According to the statistics, enzymes are the second largest group of target proteins in the human genome.

Figure 1. Classification of enzymes.

Creative Biolabs provides a comprehensive target validation services to help confirm various types of enzymes as therapeutic targets of drug discovery process thus to deal with data reproducibility crisis which is a big obstacle for drug research and development and may lead to failure and high risk of investment.

Creative Biolabs provides a comprehensive list of assays on multiple high-quality platforms to characterize the features of different enzymes as your drug targets to advance your drug discovery. With experienced experts and cutting-edge technologies, we can provide high-quality and reliable services in a time-saving and cost-efficient manner. We offer professional target validation services for the following types of enzymes.

Oxidoreductases

Oxidoreductases consist of a large class of enzymes that catalyze oxidation-reduction reactions. They can be either oxidases or dehydrogenases. Oxidoreductases play significant roles in both aerobic and anaerobic metabolism. Since so many biological procedures, like glycolysis, TCA cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, and amino acid metabolism, comprise oxidation/reduction processes, oxidoreductases are related to various diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, neurological diseases and cancer. Therefore, they have long been important drug targets in the process of drug discovery.

Transferases

Transferases are a class of enzymes that catalyze the transfer or exchange of specific functional groups from one molecule (generally regarded as donor) to another (generally regarded as acceptor). Transferases are implicated in hundreds of different biochemical pathways and cell reactions, and are essential to some of the most important processes in lives. Transferase deficiency is the root cause of many common diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington's disease, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Thus, transferases are also a common class of enzymatic drug targets.

Hydrolases

Hydolases are a class of enzymes that break chemical bonds by water to accelerate the hydrolysis of substrates and divide large molecules into smaller ones. Hydrolases could participate in a variety of biological procedures due to their diversification of acting position. Hydrolases are the most common class of enzymatic drug targets. They have therapeutic potential of multiple diseases including neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, inflammatory diseases, etc.

Lyases

Lyases are a class of enzymes that break various chemical bonds by means other than oxidation and hydrolysis. Lyases promote the removal of a group from the substrate to leave a double bond reaction or catalyze its reverse reaction. The reaction in one direction requires only one substrate, while the reverse reaction requires two substrates. Lyses have roles in many cell processes. The most well-known is adenylate cyclase, which forms cyclic AMP from ATP. Examples of lyases-related diseases are cancer and adenylosuccinate lyase (ADSL) deficiency.

Isomerases

Isomerases are a class of enzymes that facilitate the conversion of a molecule from one isomer to another and these changes are within one molecule. Isomers present in many varieties can generally be divided into structural isomers and steroisomers. Isomerases play a critical role in human diseases. Deficiencies of these enzymes, such as phosphohexose isomerase and trosephosphate isomerase, can cause disorders including hemolytic syndrome and glycolyic metabolism.

Ligases

Ligases are a class of enzymes that catalyze the synthesis of two molecular substrates into one molecular compound with the hydrolysis of a diphosphate bond in ATP or a similar triphosphate. One typical example of ligase is DNA ligase, which is active during the replication, repair and recombination process of DNA. Another example is ubiquitin ligase which also plays an essential role in regulation of many biological processes, such as cell trafficking, DNA repair and signaling. They are associated with human diseases and are a class of attractive druggable targets for pharmaceutical intervention.

Creative Biolabs has a dedicated assay development team that will work closely with you to design customized assays for your specific drug target. Our service will meet your specific needs fast at extremely competitive prices. If you need more information, please feel free to contact us at anytime. We look forward to working with you and helping your drug research and development project succeed.