Background: Among therapeutic proteins, enzymes represent small and of course profitable market. They can be used to treat important, rare, and deadly diseases. Enzyme therapy is the only available treatment for certain disorders.
Method: Here, pharmaceutical enzymes are reviewed. They are categorized in four main groups, enzymes in replacement therapy, enzymes in cancer treatment, enzymes for fibrinolysis, and finally enzymes that are used topically for various treatments. Furthermore, enzyme gene therapy and future perspective of therapeutic enzymes are mentioned in brief.
Results: There are many important approved enzymes in pharmaceutical market. Several approaches such as point mutation, fusion protein designing, glycoengineering, and PEGylation were used to achieve improved enzymes. Although sometimes enzymes were engineered to facilitate production and purification process, appropriate delivery to target sites, extending half-life, and reducing immunogenicity are among the main goals of engineering approaches.
Conclusion: Overall, enzymes play a critical role in treatment of common and rare diseases. Evaluation of new enzymes as well as improvement of approved enzymes are of the most important challenges in biotechnology.
Keywords: Biopharmaceuticals; cancer; enzyme; fibrinolytic; protein engineering; replacement therapy.
Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.
Martínez R, Schwaneberg U. Martínez R, et al. Biol Res. 2013;46(4):395-405. doi: 10.4067/S0716-97602013000400011. Biol Res. 2013. PMID: 24510142 Review.
Ryu DD, Nam DH. Ryu DD, et al. Biotechnol Prog. 2000 Jan-Feb;16(1):2-16. doi: 10.1021/bp088059d. Biotechnol Prog. 2000. PMID: 10662483 Review.
Cioni P, Gabellieri E, Campanini B, Bettati S, Raboni S. Cioni P, et al. Curr Med Chem. 2022;29(3):411-452. doi: 10.2174/0929867328666210713094722. Curr Med Chem. 2022. PMID: 34259137 Review.
Li Y, Cirino PC. Li Y, et al. Biotechnol Bioeng. 2014 Jul;111(7):1273-87. doi: 10.1002/bit.25240. Epub 2014 May 6. Biotechnol Bioeng. 2014. PMID: 24802032 Review.
Woodley JM. Woodley JM. Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2013 Apr;17(2):310-6. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2013.03.017. Epub 2013 Apr 4. Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2013. PMID: 23562542 Review.
Zerra PE, Parker ET, Baldwin WH, Healey JF, Patel SR, McCoy JW, Cox C, Stowell SR, Meeks SL. Zerra PE, et al. Biomedicines. 2022 Jul 18;10(7):1724. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines10071724. Biomedicines. 2022. PMID: 35885029 Free PMC article.
Cruz MEM, Corvo ML, Martins MB, Simões S, Gaspar MM. Cruz MEM, et al. Pharmaceutics. 2022 Feb 27;14(3):531. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics14030531. Pharmaceutics. 2022. PMID: 35335906 Free PMC article. Review.
García-Álvarez R, Vallet-Regí M. García-Álvarez R, et al. Expert Opin Drug Deliv. 2022 Jan;19(1):103-118. doi: 10.1080/17425247.2022.2029844. Epub 2022 Jan 25. Expert Opin Drug Deliv. 2022. PMID: 35076351 Free PMC article. Review.
Thistlethwaite S, Jeffreys LN, Girvan HM, McLean KJ, Munro AW. Thistlethwaite S, et al. Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Oct 21;22(21):11380. doi: 10.3390/ijms222111380. Int J Mol Sci. 2021. PMID: 34768811 Free PMC article. Review.
Stimple SD, Smith MD, Tessier PM. Stimple SD, et al. AIChE J. 2020 Mar;66(3):e16814. doi: 10.1002/aic.16814. Epub 2019 Oct 9. AIChE J. 2020. PMID: 32719568 Free PMC article.