What role do enzymes play in biochemical reactions?

Enzymes are biological catalysts that significantly speed up biochemical reactions. They achieve this by lowering the activation energy required for the reaction to proceed, which allows the reaction to occur more quickly and efficiently. This is essential in biological systems where many reactions would occur too slowly to sustain life if not for the presence of enzymes.

While enzymes do interact with substrates to form products, their primary function is to facilitate and accelerate the reaction rather than directly breaking down substrates or producing products in a mechanistic sense. The ability of enzymes to specifically bind to substrates and lower the energy barriers enables metabolic pathways to function optimally within living organisms, highlighting the critical role they play in biological processes.