Question

Competitive enzyme inhibitors are  ________

(a) Reversible inhibitors

(b) Irreversible inhibitors

(c) Permanent inhibitors

(d) None of the mentioned

This question was posed to me by my school teacher while I was bunking the class.

Question is taken from Enzymes as Biological Catalysts in portion Bioenergetics, Enzymes, Metabolism, Genes, Chromosomes and Genomes of Cell Biology

Answer 1

Right choice is (a) Reversible inhibitors

To elaborate: Irreversible inhibitors are those that bind very tightly to an enzyme, often by forming a covalent bond to one of its amino acid residues. Reversible inhibitors bind loosely to an enzyme and thus are readily displaced. Competitive inhibitors are reversible inhibitors of enzyme that compete with a substrate for access to the active site of the enzyme.