Enzyme assays measure enzyme levels and activity, with different methods for different purposes. Enzyme tests must consider factors such as temperature, pH, and salt levels. There are continuous and discontinuous assays, including spectrophotometric, fluorometric, calorimetric, chemiluminescent, radiometric, and chromatographic tests. Blood tests can also be used to test for enzyme levels, but other conditions must be considered.
Laboratory tests that measure enzyme levels and enzyme activity are known as enzyme assays. There are many types of measurement methods that measure the rate of enzyme activities and enzyme inhibitions. Enzymes are molecules that manipulate other molecules, known as substrates, by binding with them and chemically reacting with them to produce multiple by-products. Tests that measure this activity are for different purposes, based on particular disease symptoms, and pertain to different stages in enzymatic processes.
Assays that examine enzyme kinetics show how roughly an enzyme’s behavior is from the norm. There are factors to check when taking enzyme tests, such as enzymes work in a specific way based on temperatures within an organism and enzymes cannot tolerate high levels of salt as too much salt interferes with the ability of an enzyme to bind to other proteins. Many enzymes can only operate within a small pH range; therefore the pH values in the body must also be measured. A high pH can completely inhibit enzymatic activities.
There are two main types of enzymatic assays: continuous, in which constant readings are taken, and discontinuous, in which after a period of time a chemical reaction is disturbed and the amount of substrate and by-product concentrations are measured. In continuous assays, a spectrophotometric assay is used to test the levels of a substrate called NADH, which affects metabolism, or NADPH, which affects an organism’s ability to respond well to drug therapies, as they occur under its rays ultraviolet (UV) rays. So-called fluorometric assays define differences in fluorescence in certain enzyme substrates. Calorimetric tests measure the amount of heat during enzymatic chemical reactions, and chemiluminescent tests measure the light produced during chemical reactions and can detect antibodies for disease. In batch tests, radiometric tests can measure the uptake or release of radioactivity as proteins and substrate bind, and chromatographic tests measure the formation of byproducts of enzyme-substrate bonds.
Certain blood tests are often done to test for particular enzyme levels to determine heart damage. There are a number of different proteins that will be present in the blood in higher volumes when a heart muscle is damaged, for example. These tests need to be done carefully as kidney disease can also lead to nearly the same levels of these same enzymes. Another condition known as malignant hypertension can lead to elevated levels of heart enzymes; therefore, tests other than enzyme assays will be needed to determine the probable cause of the high enzyme levels.
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