Some molecules very similar to the substrate for an enzyme may be bound to the active site but be unable to react. Such molecules cover the active site and thus prevent the binding of the actual substrate to the site. This inhibition of enzyme action is of a competitive nature, because the inhibitor molecule actually competes with the substrate for the active site. The inhibitor sulfanilamide, for example, is similar enough to a substrate (p-aminobenzoic acid) of an enzyme involved in the metabolism of folic acid that it binds to the enzyme but cannot react. It covers the active site and prevents the binding of p-aminobenzoic acid. This enzyme is essential in certain disease-causing bacteria but is not essential to humans; large amounts of sulfanilamide therefore kill the microorganism but do not harm humans. Inhibitors such as sulfanilamide are called antimetabolites. Sulfanilamide and similar compounds that kill a pathogen without harming its host are widely used in chemotherapy.

Some inhibitors prevent, or block, enzymatic action by reacting with groups at the active site. The nerve gas diisopropyl fluorophosphate, for example, reacts with the serine at the active site of acetylcholinesterase to form a covalent bond. The nerve gas molecule involved in bond formation prevents the active site from binding the substrate, acetylcholine, thereby blocking catalysis and nerve action. Iodoacetic acid similarly blocks a key enzyme in muscle action by forming a bulky group on the amino acid cysteine, which is found at the enzyme’s active site. This process is called irreversible inhibition.

Some inhibitors modify amino acids other than those at the active site, resulting in loss of enzymatic activity. The inhibitor causes changes in the shape of the active site. Some amino acids other than those at the active site, however, can be modified without affecting the structure of the active site; in these cases, enzymatic action is not affected.

Such chemical changes parallel natural mutations. Inherited diseases frequently result from a change in an amino acid at the active site of an enzyme, thus making the enzyme defective. In some cases, an amino acid change alters the shape of the active site to the extent that it can no longer react; such diseases are usually fatal. In others, however, a partially defective enzyme is formed, and an individual may be very sick but able to live.

Effects of temperature

Enzymes function most efficiently within a physiological temperature range. Since enzymes are protein molecules, they can be destroyed by high temperatures. An example of such destruction, called protein denaturation, is the curdling of milk when it is boiled. Increasing temperature has two effects on an enzyme: first, the velocity of the reaction increases somewhat, because the rate of chemical reactions tends to increase with temperature; and, second, the enzyme is increasingly denatured. Increasing temperature thus increases the metabolic rate only within a limited range. If the temperature becomes too high, enzyme denaturation destroys life. Low temperatures also change the shapes of enzymes. With enzymes that are cold-sensitive, the change causes loss of activity. Both excessive cold and heat are therefore damaging to enzymes.

The degree of acidity or basicity of a solution, which is expressed as pH, also affects enzymes. As the acidity of a solution changes—i.e., the pH is altered—a point of optimum acidity occurs, at which the enzyme acts most efficiently. Although this pH optimum varies with temperature and is influenced by other constituents of the solution containing the enzyme, it is a characteristic property of enzymes. Because enzymes are sensitive to changes in acidity, most living systems are highly buffered; i.e., they have mechanisms that enable them to maintain a constant acidity. This acidity level, or pH, is about 7 in most organisms. Some bacteria function under moderately acidic or basic conditions; and the digestive enzyme pepsin acts in the acid milieu of the stomach.

The induced-fit theory

The key–lock hypothesis (see above The nature of enzyme-catalyzed reactions) does not fully account for enzymatic action; i.e., certain properties of enzymes cannot be accounted for by the simple relationship between enzyme and substrate proposed by the key–lock hypothesis. A theory called the induced-fit theory retains the key–lock idea of a fit of the substrate at the active site but postulates in addition that the substrate must do more than simply fit into the already preformed shape of an active site. Rather, the theory states, the binding of the substrate to the enzyme must cause a change in the shape of the enzyme that results in the proper alignment of the catalytic groups on its surface. This concept has been likened to the fit of a hand in a glove, the hand (substrate) inducing a change in the shape of the glove (enzyme). Although some enzymes appear to function according to the older key–lock hypothesis, most apparently function according to the induced-fit theory.

Typically, the substrate approaches the enzyme surface and induces a change in its shape that results in the correct alignment of the catalytic groups. In the case of the digestive enzyme carboxypeptidase, for example, the binding of the substrate causes a tyrosine molecule at the active site to move by as much as 15 angstroms. The catalytic groups at the active site react with the substrate to form products. The products separate from the enzyme surface, and the enzyme is able to repeat the sequence. Nonsubstrate molecules that are too bulky or too small alter the shape of the enzyme so that a misalignment of catalytic groups occurs; such molecules are not able to react even if they are attracted to the active site.

The induced-fit theory explains a number of anomalous properties of enzymes. An example is “noncompetitive inhibition,” in which a compound inhibits the reaction of an enzyme but does not prevent the binding of the substrate. In this case, the inhibitor compound attracts the binding group so that the catalytic group is too far away from the substrate to react. The site at which the inhibitor binds to the enzyme is not the active site and is called an allosteric site. The inhibitor changes the shape of the active site to prevent catalysis without preventing binding of the substrate.

An inhibitor also can distort the active site by affecting the essential binding group; as a result, the enzyme can no longer attract the substrate. A so-called activator molecule affects the active site so that a nonsubstrate molecule is properly aligned and hence can react with the enzyme. Such activators can affect both binding and catalytic groups at the active site.

Enzyme flexibility is extremely important because it provides a mechanism for regulating enzymatic activity. The orientation at the active site can be disrupted by the binding of an inhibitor at a site other than the active site. Moreover, the enzyme can be activated by molecules that induce a proper alignment of the active site for a substrate that alone cannot induce this alignment.

As mentioned above, the sites that bind inhibitors and activators are called allosteric sites to distinguish them from active sites. Allosteric sites are in fact regulatory sites able to activate or inhibit enzymatic activity by influencing the shape of the enzyme. When the activator or inhibitor dissociates from the enzyme, it returns to its normal shape. Thus, the flexibility of the protein structure allows the operation of a simple, reversible control system similar to a thermostat.

Types of allosteric control

Allosteric control can operate in many ways; two examples serve to illustrate some general effects. A pathway consisting of ten enzymes is involved in the synthesis of the amino acid histidine. When a cell contains enough histidine, synthesis stops—an appropriate economy move by the cell. Synthesis is stopped by the inhibition of the first enzyme in the pathway by the product, histidine. The inhibition of an enzyme by a product is called feedback inhibition; i.e., a product many steps removed from an initial enzyme blocks its action. Feedback inhibition occurs in many pathways in all living things.

Allosteric control can also be achieved by activators. The hormone adrenaline (epinephrine) acts in this way. When energy is needed, adrenaline is released and activates, by allosteric activation, the enzyme adenyl cyclase. This enzyme catalyzes a reaction in which the compound cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cyclic AMP) is formed from ATP. Cyclic AMP in turn acts as an allosteric activator of enzymes that speed the metabolism of carbohydrate to produce energy. This type of allosteric regulation also is widespread in biological systems. Thus, a combination of allosteric activation and inhibition allows the production of energy or materials when they are needed and shuts off production when the supply is adequate.

Allosteric control is a rapid method of regulating products continuously needed by living things. Yet some cells have no need for certain enzymes, and it would be wasteful for the cell to synthesize them. In this case, certain molecules, called repressors, prevent the synthesis of unneeded enzymes. The repressors are proteins that bind to DNA and prevent the first step in the process resulting in protein synthesis. If certain metabolites are added to cells that need an enzyme, enzyme synthesis occurs—i.e., it is induced. Addition of galactose to a growth medium containing Escherichia coli bacteria, for example, induces the synthesis of the enzyme beta-galactosidase. The bacteria thus can synthesize this galactose-metabolizing enzyme when it is needed and prevent its synthesis when it is not. The way in which the synthesis of enzymes is induced or repressed in mammalian systems is less understood but is believed to be similar.

Different types of cells in complex organisms have different enzymes, even though they have the same DNA content. The enzymes actually synthesized are the ones needed in a specific cell and vary not only for different types of cells—e.g., nerve, muscle, eye, and skin cells—but also for different species.

In an enzyme consisting of several subunits, or chains, alteration in the shape of one chain as a result of the influence either of a substrate molecule or of allosteric inhibitors or activators may change the shape of a neighboring chain. As a result, the binding of a second molecule of substrate occurs in a different way from the binding of the first, and the third is different from the second. This phenomenon, called cooperativity, is characteristic of allosteric enzymes. Cooperativity is reflected by a sigmoid curve, as compared to the hyperbolic curve of Michaelis–Menten. An enzyme of several subunits that exhibits cooperativity is far more sensitive to control mechanisms than is an enzyme of one subunit and hence one active site.

The first example of cooperativity was observed in hemoglobin, which is not an enzyme but behaves like one in many ways. The absorption of oxygen in the lungs and its deposition in the tissues is far more efficient because the subunits of hemoglobin show positive cooperativity, so called because the first molecule of substrate makes it easier for the next to bind.

Negative cooperativity, in which the binding of one molecule makes it less easy for the next to bind, also occurs in living things. Negative cooperativity makes an enzyme less sensitive to fluctuations in concentrations of metabolites and may be important for enzymes that must be present in the cell at relatively constant levels of activity.

Some enzymes are closely associated aggregates of several enzyme units; the pyruvate dehydrogenase system, for example, contains five different enzymes, has a total molecular weight of 4,000,000, and consists of four different types of chains. Apparently, the enzymes in cells may be organized by forming complex units, by being absorbed on a cell wall, or by being isolated by membranes in special compartments. Since a pathway involves the stepwise modification of chemical compounds, aggregations of the enzymes in a given pathway facilitate their function in a manner similar to an industrial assembly line.