Glucose oxidase as an analytical reagents

Lee’s forecast, quoted above, has been proved true. The real impact of enzymes as analytical reagents, however, was not felt until the mid-1960s and early 1970s, de-spite the fact that in 1951 Stetter1 d scribed applications of impure enzymes to a variety of analytical problems. Even as early as 1845, Osann2 determined hydrogen perox-ide using peroxidase. The use of enzyme preparations as analytical reagents, both soluble or immobilized on inert carriers, has grown exponentially since the 1970s.3 The enzyme glucose oxidase (EC 1.1.3.4) is, without doubt, the one employed most widely. Its use is so frequently mentioned in the analytical literature that glucose oxi-dase is sometimes suspected to be abused rather than used. Such popularity is, how-ever, the result of a combination of factors. Glucose oxidase is a useful reagent for the selective determination of glucose, an analyte of clinical as well as of industrial interest. Moreover, it is used as an analyti-cal reagent as a marker of antigens and antibodies in enzyme immunoassays. It is used in the food industry to remove small amounts of oxygen from food products or glucose from diabetic drinks.4 In addition, glucose oxidase has been proposed as an anticancer drug5a,5b because it may damag