Novel approach to how enzymes work

Enzymes, nature's natural catalysts that speed the chemical reactions of life in all living cells, are already widely used in the food and other industries.

The rapidly growing importance of enzymes is the reason why a new discovery about the way in which enzymes work, made by researchers at Leicester University, is being regarded as highly significant in economic and industrial as well as academic terms.

Using state-of-the-art equipment which enabled them to observe enzyme catalysed reactions in real time during periods of a few thousandths of a second, the Leicester researchers analysed the behaviour of several enzymes. They used quantum tunnelling theory to predict the behaviour of the enzymes and found the predictions were correct.

The difference between the quantum tunnelling and transition state theories is fundamental. In transition state theory the static enzyme molecule forces the substrate molecule to change its shape.

In quantum tunnelling theory it is the enzyme molecule that changes its shape, allowing electrically charged atomic particles to move from the enzyme molecule to the substrate molecule.

The phrase quantum tunnelling describes how the particles move through regions not accessible to them as particles by behaving instead as waves and "tunnelling" through such regions. The ability of atomic particles to behave as waves is part of quantum theory.

This excursion into the strange world of quantum physics has great practical significance since attempts to design artificial enzymes, including some based on antibodies - protein molecules of the same sort of size and shape as enzymes - have generally been disappointing, sometimes surprisingly so.

For further information, please visit The University of Leicester