What Do Proteolytic Enzymes Do?
Peptidases (short for peptide bond hydrolases) are enzymes that can cleave proteins or peptides. They catalyze the hydrolysis of peptide bonds. Peptidases are often referred to as proteases, proteinases, or proteolytic enzymes, especially when they cleave larger proteins.
Peptidases are known in all human and animal organisms primarily as digestive enzymes in the stomach and intestine, where they catalyze the breakdown of dietary protein. Special peptidases, the prolyl peptidases, can even break down gluten, which is otherwise indigestible.
But that is not all. Peptidases are ubiquitous, occurring in all tissues and cells of all organisms, where they perform a wide variety of tasks. Enzymes play a central role in metabolism. Life is impossible without proteolytic enzymes. They are the catalysts without which no conversion or degradation of proteins or peptides can take place. All compartments and structures of the body are composed of protein-containing compounds: Cells, tissues, blood, organs, skin and bones – proteases and peptidases help to maintain them.
When proteins or protein-containing structures of the body are no longer needed, damaged or even harmful, they are broken down by peptidases. The body also uses this mechanism to defend itself against invading pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, or spike proteins. These also consist of protein structures and can be broken down and degraded by proteases.
Proteolytic enzymes are therefore found in many body fluids, where they sometimes perform highly specific tasks, such as the peptidases of the blood coagulation system, the complement system and the fibrinolytic system.
»Our cells engage in protein production, and many of those proteins are enzymes responsible for the chemistry of life.«
Randy Schekmann (Cell biologist & Nobel Prize winner)
What is a Fibrinolytic Enzyme?
A fibrinolytic enzyme causes fibrin to lyse, or dissolve. Fibrin is the blood coagulant that closes wounds after injury. Fibrin is also involved in varicose veins, hematomas, blood clots, and vascular plague.
The function of a fibrinolytic enzyme is to break down these fibrin-containing protein structures throughout the body. As a systemic enzyme, it can act in various compartments of the body, not only in the intestine, but also in the bloodstream, tissues and brain. It contributes to the purification of the blood, normalizing its fluidity and blood pressure. This in turn favors the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the tissues. On the other hand, it improves the removal of metabolic wastes and waste products, which in turn helps to reduce inflammation and swelling and the associated discomfort. Good circulation also protects the cardiovascular system and the brain.
What Is Prolyl Peptidase?
Prolyl peptidase has the unique ability to break down the amino acid proline. Proline protects gluten, the glue protein in grain products, from digestion. Many people have developed gluten sensitivity, even inflammatory bowel disease, which can be relieved by reducing gluten or cleaving gluten with proline-cleaving enzymes.
The specialty of prolyl peptidase is the cleavage of particularly resistant proline compounds, which protect foreign proteins, such as those found in bacteria, viruses and their spike proteins, from the body’s defenses and digestion.
ProZYM plus provides a prolyl oligopeptitase that is enzymatically active in a universal pH range and can therefore be systemically effective in various compartments of the body. This means that it is not only effective in the intestine, but that proline-containing peptide structures can also be cleaved in the tissues or in the blood.
