Question

Methyl alcohol, also known as wood alcohol, is a common solvent and paint remover. It is poisonous if accidentally swallowed. The enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, in the liver converts methyl alcohol into formaldehyde, which then gets converted into a toxic product. Grain alcohol, ethyl alcohol, is also acted upon by alcohol dehydrogenase. One antidote for methyl alcohol poisoning is to provide the patient with ethyl alcohol. This blocks the active site of the enzyme so that it can't bind to and break down the methyl alcohol. In this capacity, the ethyl alcohol is acting as a/an:

Group of answer choices

competitive activator

allosteric regulator

competitive inhibitor

coenzyme

Answer 1

Competitice inhibitor.

Explanation:

The ethyl alcohol binds to the active site of alcohol dehydrogenase. It will not allow methyl alcohol to bikd to it. The ethyl alcohol and methyl alcohol bind to the same active site of an enzyme because of presence of same structure. The same structure allows the ethyl alcohol to bind to the active site. Hence the site can't be attained by methyl alcohol. That's why it can not bind to the active site of enzyme. The binding of ethyl alcohol and methyl alcohol to the same site of an enzyme provides the competition between these two substrates. That's why competitive inhibition is found.