![]() In humans, thousands of enzymes control the rates of essential cellular reactions, and enzymes represent ∼ 63% of all drug targets (of the 3832 targets annotated in ChEMBL, 2443 are associated with enzymes). Enzymes are also responsible for the uptake, synthesis and breakdown of chemicals, such as drugs or environmental contaminants (e.g. ![]() They do this under physiological conditions (around pH 7, 1 atm and in aqueous solution) with phenomenal yields and exquisite stereoselectivity and regioselectivity, a continuing goal for many synthetic organic chemical processes, which often need very harsh conditions to perform the same chemistry. From these basic building blocks, enzymes have evolved to perform the vast repertoire of chemical reactions, many of which are highly complex, found in nature. These proteins are formed from a pool of the 20 standard amino acids plus the rarer selenocysteine and l-pyrrolysine, which are encoded in the genetic code of life. However, these are outwith the scope of this review. Although enzymes are the most prominent of biological catalysts, examples of RNA catalysts (termed ribozymes) have been found. Enzymes are protein polymers that catalyse biochemical reactions and, without them, life as we know it could not exist.
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