How do enzymes speed up chemical reactions in living cells?

Enzymes accelerate chemical reactions in living cells by acting as biological catalysts, which lower the activation energy required for a reaction to proceed. By reducing this energy barrier, enzymes allow essential metabolic processes to occur at rates necessary for life without requiring the damaging high temperatures that would otherwise be needed to trigger these reactions.1

The process generally follows these steps:
* Binding: Substrates are attracted to a specific region of the enzyme called the active site, forming an enzyme-substrate complex.21
* Transformation: The enzyme facilitates the chemical change, often by forming a temporary transition state or a covalent intermediate, which requires less energy to convert into products.21
* Release: The products dissociate from the enzyme, leaving the enzyme unchanged and free to catalyze subsequent reactions.21

Many enzymes function according to the induced-fit theory, where the binding of a substrate induces a change in the enzyme's shape, ensuring the correct alignment of catalytic groups to perform the reaction.3