Question

6. Compare and contrast competitive and noncompetitive inhibition mechanisms. Comment on the significance of inhibition mechanism in metabolism and the design of inhibitors to be used as drugs.

Answer 1

competitive inhibition:

The structure of inhibition molecule is similar to that of the substrate. The inhibitor get attached to active site of the enzyme.It competes with the substrate molecule or for the enzyme.In this machanism the structure of enzyme does not alter and the reaction can be reversed by increasing the substrate concentration.

non-competitive inhibition :

In this mechanism the structure of inhibitor is completely different, inhibitor forms complex at point other than the active site.It does not compete with the substrate and it alters the structure of the enzyme in such way that the substrate may get attached to the active site but products are not formed.

the reaction goes on decreasing as more inhibitors contact the enzyme till saturation is reached.

enzyme inhibition can cause many adverse drug interactions that tend to happen more rapidly than those seen wth the enzyme induction, as they occur once the concentrtaion of the inhibiting drug becomes high enough to compete with affected drug.