Medical Aspects of Esterases: a Mini Review

Nowadays, esterases represent high growth potential in the World Industrial Enzymes Market. The industrial applications of esterases provide an immense contribution to the eco-friendly approaches towards nature as also in the food, textile industries as additives in detergents, agrochemical (herbicides, insecticides) industries, and bioremediation. The current review is focused mainly on different medical aspects of esterases because they find implications in treatment of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and neuropathy. The role of esterase has been observed in the treatment of hereditary angioedema (HAE). The arylesterase (ARE) has been found to show antioxidant activity in plasma cells and its low activity resulted in multiple myelomas accounting for 1% of neoplastic diseases and 13% of hematological malignancies in U. S. A. Lung cancer is one of the most lethal forms of cancers and reports have indicated that tumors of the lung, colon and liver had high esterase expressions and therefore could be exploited for selective drug conversion using an ester prodrug strategy. Human serum paraoxonase (PON1) and arylesterase (ARE) are lipophilic antioxidant enzymes. Hypercholesterolaemia has been found to be associated with reduced PON1 enzyme activities and patients are under increased oxidative stress. Esterases from animal and plant origins have been used as effective drugs and as detection probes for toxic compounds using chiral technology.