{"id":3519,"date":"2025-10-28T19:26:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T23:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/?p=3519"},"modified":"2025-10-28T19:26:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T23:26:29","slug":"enzymes-and-asthma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/2025\/10\/28\/enzymes-and-asthma\/","title":{"rendered":"Enzymes and Asthma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was very intrigued by our conversations surrounding enzyme inhibition, specifically penicillin, and enzyme defects, specifically favism, because they both reminded me of allergens. My whole life I have had to repeat my laundry list of allergens, the most important being penicillin, followed by \u2018everything outside\u2019 that activates my allergy induced asthma. When it comes to my asthma, I always just figure there was something wrong with my lungs. But, after our conversations in class regarding enzyme inhibition, deficiencies, and defects, I started to become curious about whether my asthma could be attributed to something regarding enzymes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After some brief investigation, I discovered that the glucose metabolism pathway can influence the function of airway epithelial cells, which act as the primary defense against inhaled allergens, by affecting their cell signaling. Additionally, some key glycolytic enzymes that I recognized have important roles in asthma, including:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hexokinase 2 &#8211; controls (ASMC) adult smooth muscle cell production (increased ASMC can lead to decreased lung function)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lactate Dehydrogenase &#8211; facilitates glycolytic process by converting pyruvate to lactate (some studies have found an association between respiratory distress and an increased conversion of pyruvate to lactate)\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Defects, deficiencies, or inhibition of these enzymes can lead to or attribute to asthma!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/files\/2025\/10\/Asthma-Enzymes-.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3521 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/files\/2025\/10\/Asthma-Enzymes-.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1138\" height=\"511\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/files\/2025\/10\/Asthma-Enzymes-.jpg 1138w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/files\/2025\/10\/Asthma-Enzymes--300x135.jpg 300w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/files\/2025\/10\/Asthma-Enzymes--1024x460.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/files\/2025\/10\/Asthma-Enzymes--768x345.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1138px) 100vw, 1138px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some recent studies have used glycolysis inhibitors as effective potential therapeutic agents for asthma, like effectively reducing lactate production and inflammation, but result in systemic toxicity. So, until there&#8217;s further research into glycolytic enzymes that cause or improve asthma, I\u2019ll just have to stick close to my inhalers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC5492954\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC5492954\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC12311234\/#t0001\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Research Progress on Glycolysis in the Pathogenesis of Asthma &#8211; PMC<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was very intrigued by our conversations surrounding enzyme inhibition, specifically penicillin, and enzyme defects, specifically favism, because they both reminded me of allergens. My whole life I have had to repeat my laundry list of allergens, the most important &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/2025\/10\/28\/enzymes-and-asthma\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[349081],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3522,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3519\/revisions\/3522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/bc362\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}