Competitive inhibition is a strategy for controlling theactivity of an enzyme. I

Question

Competitive inhibition is a strategy for controlling theactivity of an enzyme. In this mechanism and inhibitor molecule, l,binds to the active site of an enzyme, E, blocking it fromprocessing its substrate a) Derive the Michaelis Menten rule with the idea that E cannow be in any of the 3 states PE + PES + PEl = 1 . b) Solve for the reaction velocity, v in terms of theuninhibited enzyme (KM & Vmax),Keq,l and the total concentrations of the inhibitor,cl and substrate cs. c) Ethanol and methanol are 2 similar, small molecules.Methanol is quite toxic: The liver enzyme alcohol dehydrogenaseconverts it to formaldehyde, which can cause blindness (hence thedanger of drinking homemade distilled alcohol). The kidneys willeventually remove methanol from the blood, but not fast enough toavert this damage. Why do you suppose the treatment for methanolpoisoning involves gradual intravenous injection of ethanol? Competitive inhibition is a strategy for controlling theactivity of an enzyme. In this mechanism and inhibitor molecule, l,binds to the active site of an enzyme, E, blocking it fromprocessing its substrate a) Derive the Michaelis Menten rule with the idea that E cannow be in any of the 3 states PE + PES + PEl = 1 . b) Solve for the reaction velocity, v in terms of theuninhibited enzyme (KM & Vmax),Keq,l and the total concentrations of the inhibitor,cl and substrate cs. c) Ethanol and methanol are 2 similar, small molecules.Methanol is quite toxic: The liver enzyme alcohol dehydrogenaseconverts it to formaldehyde, which can cause blindness (hence thedanger of drinking homemade distilled alcohol). The kidneys willeventually remove methanol from the blood, but not fast enough toavert this damage. Why do you suppose the treatment for methanolpoisoning involves gradual intravenous injection of ethanol?

Explanation / Answer

c) Ethanol acts to slow down the action of alcoholdehydrogenase on methanol via competitiveinhibition so that it is excreted by the kidneys ratherthan being transformed into toxic metabolites.

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