Competitive inhibitors bind orthosterically selleckchem to the active site where the substrate usually occupies the enzyme, therefore competing with the substrate׳s ability to bind. In general, as the concentration of substrate in the assay increases above Km, there is a higher probability of the substrate occupying the active site over the inhibitor at a fixed concentration of the inhibitor. Therefore, increasing the concentration of substrate decreases the ability of competitive inhibitors to bind and inhibit an enzyme. Uncompetitive inhibitors (a mechanism

that is often observed in two-substrate enzyme assays using an ordered binding mechanism) bind to the enzyme only when the enzyme has already bound a substrate molecule. At concentrations below the substrate Km, very little enzyme-substrate complex exists and therefore there is a low probability of uncompetitive compounds inhibiting the enzyme. In searching for uncompetitive inhibitors, the first substrate is usually MK-1775 cost present at high concentrations to drive its binding and enhance the binding of uncompetitive inhibitors. Non-competitive compounds bind the enzyme at an allosteric site, independently

of the substrate molecule. Because of this, binding of the inhibitor is unaffected by substrate binding and therefore is unaffected by substrate concentration. From these explanations, it becomes clear that the choice of substrate concentration relative to Km can skew the inhibitor proportions immensely. In general, running an enzyme assay with substrate

concentration at the Km is optimal to identify inhibitors of all three classes ( Yang et al., 2009) ( Figure 3). High substrate concentration will enrich for uncompetitive compounds, while low substrate concentrations will enrich the competitive inhibitors. Note that at all concentrations of substrate one should be able to identify non-competitive inhibitors ( Copeland, 2003 and Yang et al., 2009). It should be noted that direct comparison acetylcholine of IC50 values between compounds exhibiting different MoI is irrelevant due to the fundamental kinetic parameters driving the various inhibition modes. Only the Ki can be used to compare in a meaningful way the level of inhibition between compounds of different inhibition modes. Ki and IC50 are related through a series of equations, described by Cheng and Prusoff (1973), but this comparison requires knowledge of the respective MoI for the compounds of interest ( Cheng and Prusoff, 1973). In addition to its effect on inhibitor modality, substrate concentration also directly correlates with the signal intensity of the assay. Increasing the concentration of substrate should increase the turnover of the assay until the substrate is saturating the enzyme.