Question

A pharmaceutical company wishes to focus on an enzyme to develop new medications. What type of study would be of the greatest benefit?

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer is Understanding the enzyme's structure would help pharmaceutical companies design molecules that fit to the binding site and alter activity.

Explanation:

Enzymes are "specialist" proteins and control all of our body's chemical reactions. There are enzymes in everything that is alive. They are said to be catalysts, because each chemical reaction needs an enzyme to be carried out, that is, everything that is transformed is done thanks to an enzyme. Each enzyme acts on a specific substance, like a key and a lock.

Drugs work by causing changes in some physiological process or function. Many exert their effect by specifically interacting with some macromolecular structure in the body. To refer to this macromolecule, Paul Erlich  He proposed the term "receiver" at the beginning of the last century. In this way, the interaction of each drug with its respective receptor or site of action initiates the biochemical and physiological changes that are characteristic of that drug.

An example of a site of action is that of enzymes, proteins specialized in accelerating biochemical reactions. The interaction of a drug with its molecular target has been compared very simply with what happens between a key and a lock. In this case, the key fits into the lock to produce an action: open or close that lock.