Enzymes in the Development of Physico-Chemical Methods for Biomedical Research

The possibilities that open up when using instrumental methods such as voltammetry, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and mass spectrometry in tandem with enzymatic catalysis are considered. The basic principles of operation of electrochemical biosensors based on oxidases and dehydrogenases are described. It is shown that biosensors based on cyclic enzymatic reactions and substrate recycling have the best sensitivity. Variants of a significant improvement in the analytical capabilities of biosensor analysis due to the application of polymers for effective modification of the electrode surface and nondestructive immobilization of enzymes are considered. The data demonstrating how the use of enzyme labels expands the range of bioanalytical applications of SERS are presented. The possibility of a highly sensitive measurement of the activity of enzyme labels (peroxidase, alkaline phosphatase, β-galactosidase) by SERS, in fact, opens up a new universal platform for the development of protocols to determine various antigens. The main trends in the methodology development of proteomic studies by mass spectrometry and the role of proteases in the design of mass spectrometric experiments are considered on the example of the most commonly used proteases.