Actions of Radiations on Enzymes

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Abstract
The action of various types of radiation on living cells, is said to be attributed to the biochemical effects caused by ionizing radiations on certain constituents or systems of biological importance, especially such as enzymes and enzyme systems. It is expected that by irradiation with X-rays, Υ-rays, α-particles, β-particles, protons and neutrons, the chemical changes which take place in certain atomic groups in the enzyme molecules are such as to cause inhibition of their activity. Dale's pioneer work on the inactivation of carboxypeptidase (1, 2) and several other studies on urease (3, 4) have already been carried out as to the effects of X-rays and other radiations. In the studies on inactivation of enzyme by X-rays, Barron and his collaborators (4, 5) showed that enzymes which have active sulfhydryl groups were susceptible to inhibition by moderate doses of X-rays and this inhibition was attributable to the oxidation of the sulfhydryl groups to inactive disulfides. In the present work, the mechanisms causing the inactivation of urease, one of the well known sulfhydryl enzymes, by Υ-ray irradiation were studied.

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