Enzyme Inhibitors Journals

Enzyme inhibitors are molecules that bind to enzymes and lower their activity. Many drugs are enzyme inhibitors due to the correction of metabolic imbalance may occur, as a result of blocking an enzyme activity. Therefore, the discovery of enzyme inhibitors is an active area of research in biochemistry and pharmacology. Not all molecules that bind to enzymes are inhibitors; enzyme activators bind to enzymes and elevate their enzymatic activity. Inhibitor binding is either reversible or irreversible. Usually, irreversible inhibitors react with the enzyme and change it chemically. Reversible inhibitors bind non-covalently to produce different types of inhibition, depending on whether these inhibitors bind the enzyme, the enzyme- substrate complex, or both. There are different types of reversible inhibition that may be competitive, non-competitive types and uncompetitive, although a mixed type sometimes arises. Non-competitive inhibition is a form of inhibition where the binding of the inhibitor to the enzyme reduces its activity, but does not affect the binding of substrate. However, an allosteric effect occurs where the inhibitor binds to a different site on an enzyme. The value of the inhibition constant (Ki) is used as an indication for the degree of enzyme inhibition. (Mahmoud Balbaa and El Sayed H. El Ashry, Enzyme Inhibitors as Therapeutic Tools)

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Last date updated on September, 2024