What Is Glucose Oxidase?
Glucose oxidase, a once-obscure enzyme, has received increasing attention for its groundbreaking role in home blood glucose monitoring devices for diabetes management. These devices, which enable diabetics to keep track of blood sugar levels (the level of glucose in the blood) that are dangerous if too high or too low, use biosensor technology.
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Glucose oxidase catalyzes the conversion of glucose into glucolactone in a reaction that also converts oxygen into hydrogen peroxide. This is a redox (oxidation-reduction) reaction, meaning there is a gain or loss of electrons in the molecules. The donor molecule is "oxidated" and the receptor molecule "reduced." In the glucose oxidase reaction, oxygen is the final electron receptor, whereupon it is reduced to hydrogen peroxide.
Principles
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Glucose oxidase was the first enzyme used in blood glucose meters. The glucose oxidase reaction works in these devices according to simple principles, as explained by David S. Goodsell in a May 2006 feature for the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics. Glucose is difficult to measure, but hydrogen peroxide is not. When hydrogen peroxide is formed in the reaction, a platinum electrode senses it. The more peroxide, the more glucose and the more peroxide, the stronger the signal.
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Considerations
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While this works with lab meters, platinum sensors are forbiddingly expensive for individual home use, Goodsell explains. Luckily, glucose oxidase has a property that allows this obstacle to be overcome. Since glucose oxidase can use other molecules besides oxygen as the final electron receptor in the oxidation process, biotech researchers have been able to develop "mediator" molecules that pick up the electrons from the reaction and deliver them to a cheaper type of electrode. This is the technology used in disposable single-strip home glucose monitors that employ the glucose oxidase reaction.
Significance
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The greater the accuracy of blood-sugar monitoring, the more control the diabetic has over her disease and the better her chances of avoiding long-term complications of the disease due to poor management. But glucose oxidase is a well-rounded enzyme that also has applications in the food and beverage industry.
Further Applications
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The glucose oxidase reaction has also led to the wide use of the enzyme in the food and beverage industry. It increases the storage capability of foods by removing glucose or oxygen from them, removes glucose from egg yolks prior to their drying for baking use, controls browning in mayonnaise and wine, and removes oxygen from the head space in canned and bottled beverages.
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