Question

Are inhibitors used up or not used up like enzymes and why is it so?

Answer 1

it depends what you mean by used up. Any drug you take will be biotransformed, at one point or another (sometimes several times), and it will be excreted through glomerular filtration. Some inhibitors cane reversibly bind, meaning that they inhibit their target transiently, while some bind covalently, which renders, both, it's target and the inhibitor useless.

Answer 2

@aaronq can you be specific whether or not inhibitors are not used up like catalysts.

Answer 3

it depends on how they bind with their target. If it's reversible then no (although they do have a lifetime and won't last forever), if they covalently bind, then their relationship is stoichiometric and in which case you can say they are "used up".

Answer 4

Thanks a lot @aaronq

Answer 5

no problem