An enzyme or ferment that is defective, abnormal, or causes harmful chemical reactions in the body.
From Greek 'kakos' (bad) + 'zyme' (ferment/enzyme). This biochemical term describes enzymes with pathological or abnormal function.
While we now understand enzyme deficiencies at the molecular level, 'cacozyme' represents 19th-century attempts to explain diseases like metabolic disorders—they sensed something was wrong with the 'ferments' but couldn't see the actual genetic mutations yet!
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