text: Because most deoxyribozymes suffer from product inhibition and thus exhibit single-turnover behavior, it is sometimes argued that deoxyribozymes do not exhibit "true" catalytic behavior since they cannot undergo multiple-turnover catalysis like most biological enzymes. However, the general definition of a catalyst requires only that the substance speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction (i.e. it is not permanently chemically altered and can be recycled). Thus, by this definition, single-turnover deoxyribozymes are indeed catalysts. Furthermore, many endogenous enzymes (both proteins and ribozymes) also exhibit single-turnover behavior, and so the exclusion of deoxyribozymes from the rank of "catalyst" simply because it does not feature multiple-turnover behavior seems unjustified.