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The enzyme unit, or international unit for enzyme (symbol U, sometimes also IU) is a unit of enzyme's catalytic activity. [ 1 ] 1 U (μmol/min) is defined as the amount of the enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of one micro mole of substrate per minute under the specified conditions of the assay method .
The SI unit is katal/kg, but a more practical unit is μmol/(mg*min). Specific activity is a measure of enzyme processivity (the capability of enzyme to be processed), at a specific (usually saturating) substrate concentration, and is usually constant for a pure enzyme.
The katal (symbol: kat) is that catalytic activity that will raise the rate of conversion by one mole per second in a specified assay system. [1] It is a unit of the International System of Units (SI) [1] used for quantifying the catalytic activity of enzymes (that is, measuring the enzymatic activity level in enzyme catalysis) and other catalysts.
Whereas the IC 50 value for a compound may vary between experiments depending on experimental conditions, (e.g. substrate and enzyme concentrations) the K i is an absolute value. K i is the inhibition constant for a drug; the concentration of competing ligand in a competition assay which would occupy 50% of the receptors if no ligand were present.
In pharmacology, the international unit (IU) is a unit of measurement for the effect or biological activity of a substance, for the purpose of easier comparison across similar forms of substances. International units are used to quantify vitamins and biologics ( hormones , some medications , vaccines , blood products and similar biologically ...
[1] [2] It is usually given in units of becquerel per kilogram (Bq/kg), but another commonly used unit of specific activity is the curie per gram (Ci/g). In the context of radioactivity , activity or total activity (symbol A ) is a physical quantity defined as the number of radioactive transformations per second that occur in a particular ...
A comparison of specificity constants can also be used as a measure of the preference of an enzyme for different substrates (i.e., substrate specificity). The higher the specificity constant, the more the enzyme "prefers" that substrate. [1] The following equation, known as the Michaelis–Menten model, is used to describe the kinetics of enzymes:
Conversions between units in the metric system are defined by their prefixes (for example, 1 kilogram = 1000 grams, 1 milligram = 0.001 grams) and are thus not listed in this article. Exceptions are made if the unit is commonly known by another name (for example, 1 micron = 10 −6 metre).