Enzyme Inhibition (Competitive vs. Non-Competitive/Allosteric)

Learn about the 2 types of enzyme inhibition!

Transcript:
Certain chemicals interfere with enzymes and make them not work as well.   This is called enzyme inhibition and the chemicals that cause it are called inhibitors.  
To understand how enzyme inhibitors work, you must know a bit about how enzymes normally function.  Usually, substrates fit into the active site of an enzyme where the reaction is helped along.  

One way that an inhibitor can function is by blocking the active site.   This is called competitive inhibition because the competitive inhibitor competes with the substrate for the active site.  If the inhibitor beats the substrate to the active site, the substrate can’t get in and the reaction can’t happen.  

Another type of inhibition is noncompetitive inhibition also known as allosteric inhibition.   A noncompetitive inhibitor does not compete for the active site.   Instead, it attaches to a different place on the enzyme known as an allosteric site.   This changes the shape of the enzyme so that it can no longer bind to the substrate.  

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