Destabilization is as important as binding
Enzymes make use of non-covalent interactions with their substrates to bring about a large fraction of their catalytic activity. These interactions must destabilize, or increase the Gibbs energy, of the substrate in the active site in order that the transition state can be reached easily. This destabilization may be brought about by utilization of the intrinsic binding energy between the active site and the bound substrate by desolvation of charged groups, geometric distortion, electrostatic interactions and, especially, loss of entropy in the enzyme-substrate complex. These mechanisms are described by interaction energies and require utilization of the intrinsic binding energy that is realized from non-covalent interactions between the enzyme and substrate. Receptors and coupled vectorial processes, such as muscle contraction and active transport, utilize binding energy similarly to avoid large peaks and valleys along the Gibbs energy profile of the reaction under physiological conditions.