What is a suicide enzyme?

A suicide enzyme is a type of enzyme that is specifically designed to cleave (cut) a particular molecule, often a substrate or a protein, at a specific site. Suicide enzymes are typically used in research as tools to study the function of specific molecules or pathways. They are called “suicide” enzymes because, once they have cleaved their target molecule, they become inactive and cannot be used again.

One example of a suicide enzyme is caspase-3, which is a protease (a type of enzyme that cleaves proteins) that is involved in programmed cell death, or apoptosis. Caspase-3 specifically cleaves proteins at aspartate residues, and its activity is essential for the execution of the cell death program.