Nerve agents and acetylcholinesterase: Difference between revisions

<scene name='81/814054/Entire_molecule/6'>Acetylcholinesterase</scene> is one of the most efficient human enzymes that is known. It can hydrolyze around 600,000 <scene name='81/814054/Acetylcholinesterase_acetylcho/2'>acetylcholine</scene> molecules each minute which shows how essential it is to human life. <ref name="Stone"> Stone, R. (2018, September 25). How to defeat a nerve agent. Retrieved from https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/01/how-defeat-nerve-agent. </ref> Acetylcholinesterase has 3 active sites, according to current research, but nerve agents attack the primary site. The gorge that is located on the molecule near the <scene name='81/814054/Active_site_redone/2'>active site</scene> plays an essential role in the function of acetylcholine. <ref name="Xu">Xu, Y., Cheng, S., Sussman, J., Silman, I., & Jiang, H. (2017). Computational Studies on Acetylcholinesterases. Molecules, 22(8), 1324. doi:10.3390/molecules22081324</ref> The gorge allows the active site to open and close in order to control the flow of substrates that come to acetylcholine. Acetylcholinesterase was found to have 14 <scene name='81/814054/Aromatic_aa/1'>aromatic amino acids</scene> located around the opening to the gorge and this plays a role in the dipole moment within the molecule and it leads to a more symmetric charge distribution within the molecule. In 2017, it was found that acetylcholinesterase was a very effective catalyst and when a substrate interacts with an enzyme, that becomes the rate-limiting step. <ref name="Xu">Xu, Y., Cheng, S., Sussman, J., Silman, I., & Jiang, H. (2017). Computational Studies on Acetylcholinesterases. Molecules, 22(8), 1324. doi:10.3390/molecules22081324</ref>