4. Conclusion

Enzymes are mainly studied in the pharmaceutical field. Inhibiting the catalysts of pathogenic infectious agents or those of disease-causing, abnormally-functioning organisms is one of the mainstays of drug therapy. Activation of these catalysts is also possible, but much less common in therapy.

To characterize enzyme inhibition and activation, the main experimental technique is kinetic monitoring of the transformation of substrates into products.

The most classical enzymatic kinetics and the modes of action of the main effectors are reviewed. A paragraph devoted to a new type of inhibition, that of oligomerization, opens up future perspectives in the field of enzymology. New modes of action for enzyme inhibitors and activators are then possible.

This new research into new modes of enzyme inhibition is accompanied...