Context
A CSIR-CLRI study has showed that nanozymes can ensure collagen’s integrity and enhance resistance to enzymatic degradation
About Nanozymes:
- Are nanomaterials with enzyme-like catalytic activities.
- Composition: Unlike natural enzymes (proteins), they are made of materials like metals, metal oxides, and carbon-based materials.
- Characteristics of Nanozymes:
- Catalytic Activity: Mimic natural enzymes, acting as oxidases, peroxidases, etc.
- Versatility: Can catalyze a broad range of chemical reactions.
- Stability: More stable than natural enzymes, tolerant to extreme pH and temperature.
- Ease of Synthesis: Synthesized easily, allowing for customization.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Certain nanozymes (e.g., iron-based) are cost-efficient for mass production.
- Applications of Nanozymes:
- Environmental Remediation: Used for pollutant degradation in water and soil.
- Biomedical Diagnostics: Aid in disease detection by producing detectable signals in assays.
- Drug Delivery: Release drugs in response to specific triggers like pH or temperature.
- Antibacterial Agents: Serve as alternatives to antibiotics, especially for antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
- Neurological Disease Diagnosis: Oxidize neurotransmitters to help diagnose disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
- Challenges:
- Property Fine-Tuning: Efforts needed to improve biocompatibility and catalytic properties.
- Long-term Effects: Further research required to assess their long-term biological impacts.
- Industrial Scale-Up: Scaling production for industrial use remains a challenge.
Source:
TH
Previous Year Question
In the context of the developments in Bioinformatics, the term ‘transcriptome’, sometimes seen in the news, refers to?
[UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2016 Prelims]
(a) a range of enzymes used in genome editing
(b) the full range of mRNA molecules expressed by an organism
(c) the description of the mechanism of gene expression
(d) a mechanism of genetic mutation taking place in cells
Answer: (d)
