Medicinal uses of enzyme inhibitors

Inhibitors of enzymes are most successful in the war against infection. If an enzyme is crucial to a microorganism, then switching it off will clearly kill the cell or prevent it from growing. Of course, the enzyme chosen has to be one which is not present in our own bodies. Fortunately, there are significant biochemical differences between bacterial cells and our own to permit this approach to work. 

Nature, of course, is well ahead in this game. The fungal metabolite penicillin enters bacterial cells and fools its way into the active site of an enzyme which is crucial to the construction of the bacterial cell wall. It then reacts through the normal mechanism and in doing so forms a stable covalent bond to the enzyme. The enzyme can no longer accept the normal substrate, construction of the cell wall ceases and the cell dies. 

Chapter 10 covers antibacterial agents such as the sulfonamides, penicillins, and cephalosporins all of which act by inhibiting enzymes. 

Chapter 11 considers agents known as anticholinesterases which inhibit the enzyme responsible for the hydrolysis of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. 

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