When an inhibitor interacts with an enzyme it decreases the enzyme’s catalytic efficiency. An irreversible inhibitor covalently binds to the enzyme’s active site, producing a permanent loss in catalytic efficiency even if we decrease the inhibitor’s concentration. A reversible inhibitor forms a noncovalent complex with the enzyme, resulting in a temporary decrease in catalytic efficiency. If we remove the inhibitor, the enzyme’s catalytic efficiency returns to its normal level.
There are several pathways for the reversible binding of an inhibitor to an enzyme, as shown here.
In competitive inhibition the substrate and the inhibitor compete for the same active site on the enzyme. Because the substrate cannot bind to an enzyme–inhibitor complex, EI, the enzyme’s catalytic efficiency for the substrate decreases. With noncompetitive inhibition the substrate and the inhibitor bind to different active sites on the enzyme, forming an enzyme–substrate–inhibitor, or ESI complex. The formation of an ESI complex decreases catalytic efficiency because only the enzyme–substrate complex reacts to form the product. Finally, in uncompetitive inhibition the inhibitor binds to the enzyme–substrate complex, forming an inactive ESI complex.
We can identify the type of reversible inhibition by observing how a change in the inhibitor’s concentration affects the relationship between the rate of reaction and the substrate’s concentration. As shown here
when we display kinetic data using as a Lineweaver-Burk plot it is easy to determine which mechanism is in effect. For example, an increase in slope, a decrease in the x-intercept, and no change in the y-intercept indicates competitive inhibition. Because the inhibitor’s binding is reversible, we can still obtain the same maximum velocity—thus the constant value for the y-intercept—by adding enough substrate to completely displace the inhibitor. Because it takes more substrate, the value of Km increases, which explains the increase in the slope and the decrease in the x-intercept’s value.
