reversible and irreversible competitive antagonist

**motivationG** · 10-11-2009, 07:49 AM

How is it possible to experimentally discriminate between a reversible competitive antagosnist and a low concentration of an irrversible competitive antagonist?

**zhangyuzhi** · 10-11-2009, 04:30 PM

Originally Posted by motivationG

How is it possible to experimentally discriminate between a reversible competitive antagosnist and a low concentration of an irrversible competitive antagonist?

increase the conc. of the agonist (acting on the same site)?

for reversible one this will eventually cause the rate to reach max., while for irreversible one, because a fraction of your protein is essentially out of the game, maximal rate can never be reached.

otherwise from my pharmacological knowledge I have no way of finding that out.

**motivationG** · 14-11-2009, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by zhangyuzhi

increase the conc. of the agonist (acting on the same site)?

for reversible one this will eventually cause the rate to reach max., while for irreversible one, because a fraction of your protein is essentially out of the game, maximal rate can never be reached.

otherwise from my pharmacological knowledge I have no way of finding that out.

Thanks a lot zhangyuzhi....Also I was wondering if you know how you can discriminate between the site of action of two agonists?- say acetylcholine and vasopressin?
And also how one may improve the accuracy of the EC50 estimate- the effective concentration that gives 50 percent of the maximal response? Sorry about all the questions!
Thanks in advance!!