Vol. 51 (2018): Bulletin of the Chemists and Technologists of Bosnia and Herzegovina

EVOLUTION OF ENZYMES: Benefit for humankind

Diversity of life revealed the power of evolution. Since the first seeds of life arose around 3.7 billion years ago, almost every crevice on Earth has filled with different organisms. Forms of life are present in every part of Earth because evolution has solved a number of chemical problems. Proteins or as they are commonly called “chemical tools of life” have been optimized, modified and involved in different aspects of life’s diversity.

This year’s Nobel Laureates in Chemistry have been inspired by the power of evolution and used the principles – genetic change and selection – to develop proteins that solve mankind’s chemical problems. The 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded partially to Frances H. Arnold, fifth women to receive this outstanding award. She was the pioneer in conducting research on direct evolution of enzymes. Directed evolution is an iterative process scientists use to design biological molecules like enzymes. It requires inducing some randomness in the target enzyme within an organism like bacteria. The resulting mutated bacteria are screened to see which ones do the intended job the best. The winners are then cultured, and from their offspring, the best are selected, and then cultured, and so on. Enzymes produced through directed evolution are used to manufacture everything from bio-fuels to pharmaceuticals. Antibodies evolved using a method called phage display can combat autoimmune diseases and in some cases cure metastatic cancer. Other half of Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter for the development of the phage display - where a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria – can be used to evolve new proteins. Phage display was used for the directed evolution of antibodies, with the aim of producing new pharmaceuticals. The first one based on this method, adalimumab, was approved in 2002 and is used for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel diseases. Since then, phage display has produced anti-bodies that can neutralise toxins, counteract autoimmune diseases and cure metastatic cancer. Today, many phage display were used to produce different antibodies that are capable of neutralizing wide range of toxins, counteract autoimmune diseases and cure metastatic cancer.

Incredible fields of new therapy approaches for cancer therapies are now available because of the methods created and modified by this year Nobel Prize winners. We are currently living in the era of great evolution of enzymes with outstanding benefit for humankind.