Question

A certain compound X occupied a site of an enzyme exactly opposite to that of the active site. This immediately resulted in the change of shape of the active site. X is called a ______

(a) competitive inhibitor

(b) non-competitive inhibitor

(c) competitive messenger

(d) receptor

I had been asked this question in an international level competition.

This interesting question is from Drug-Target Interaction in chapter Chemistry in Everyday Life of Chemistry – Class 12

Answer 1

The correct choice is (b) non-competitive inhibitor

The explanation: Non-competitive inhibitors are drugs that affect the catalytic activity of enzymes by changing the shape of the active site by binding to the enzyme at some other site. This prevents the substrate from binding to the enzyme.