Question about the "Why Aren't All Medicines Pills?" experiment

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hello808
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Question about the "Why Aren't All Medicines Pills?" experiment

Post by hello808 »

Hello :) I just wanted to confirm if I'm correct in that protease enzymes break the peptide bonds within jello, thus altering its physical shape, and that's why it can be compared to insulin since it's also made up of peptide chains!

I was also wondering how the preservatives or sugar in jello can affect the chemical structure of the gelatin itself. I tried reading some articles about the effect sugar has on gelatin, but they were hard to understand. :(
emmettmr
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Re: Question about the "Why Aren't All Medicines Pills?" experiment

Post by emmettmr »

Hi,

Yes! Insulin and gelatine are both made from peptide chains and both would be broken down in the presence of protease altering their shapes and functions. This is why we can use Jello to demonstrate what the effects of digestive enzymes would be on insulin!

as for your question, as it turns out, sugars can actually act as a stabilizer for proteins making them keep their form at higher and colder temperatures compared to the absence of sugars. Normal table sugar was even used in the Pfizer covid vaccine to help the RNA molecules keep their form during freezing.

here are a few articles I found on the subject, however, they are pretty complicated:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 1116306956
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23822280/

-Emmett
hello808
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Re: Question about the "Why Aren't All Medicines Pills?" experiment

Post by hello808 »

Oh wow, thank you so much for the explanation and the links!! :D
hello808
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Re: Question about the "Why Aren't All Medicines Pills?" experiment

Post by hello808 »

Ah I'm sorry to ask another question, but in the experiment it says to leave the jello in the meat tenderizer solution for 2 hours. Is there a specific reason why it should be 2 hours, and not for longer/shorter?
kstromberg
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Re: Question about the "Why Aren't All Medicines Pills?" experiment

Post by kstromberg »

Hello, all enzymes have different rates at which they work. If it is in the protease solution for less than 2 hours, not enough of the substrate (jello) will convert to the product. However, if the jello is not a different shape after the two hours in the protease solution, you can leave it in there for another two hours.

Here is a post explaining it a little further: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucbcdab/enzass/inctime.htm
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