What effect do enzyme inhibitors have on enzyme function?

Enzyme inhibitors significantly affect enzyme function by blocking the active site or altering the enzyme's structure. When a molecule attaches to the active site of an enzyme, it prevents the substrate from binding, effectively decreasing the enzyme's activity. This can happen through competitive inhibition, where the inhibitor competes with the substrate for the active site, or non-competitive inhibition, where the inhibitor binds to a different part of the enzyme, resulting in a conformational change that reduces its catalytic efficiency.

Understanding the role of enzyme inhibitors is critical in biochemistry and pharmacology, as they can regulate metabolic pathways and provide a basis for drug development. For instance, certain medications function as enzyme inhibitors to reduce or block the action of specific enzymes associated with diseases. This ability to modulate enzyme activity underscores the importance of enzyme inhibitors in both natural biological processes and therapeutic applications.