Tetanus is also commonly called lockjaw, because the infection primarily causes muscle contractions in the jaw and neck, but can eventually spread to other parts of the body. Without treatment, tetanus infection can be life-threatening.
Competitive inhibitors. The inhibitor (I) competes with the substrate (S) for the enzyme active site (also known as the S-binding site). Binding of either of these molecules in the active site is a mutually exclusive event. The substrate and inhibitor share a high degree of structural similarity.
Enzymes are highly selective catalysts, meaning that each enzyme only speeds up a specific reaction. The molecules that an enzyme works with are called substrates. The substrates bind to a region on the enzyme called the active site. There are two theories explaining the enzyme-substrate interaction.