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An enzyme inhibitor is a molecule that binds to an enzyme's active site, or another site on the enzyme, and blocks the enzyme's catalysis of the reaction. Enzyme inhibitors are generally specific to one enzyme and control that enzyme's activity. They also control essential enzymes such as proteases or nucleases that, if left unchecked, may damage a cell. Many poisons produced by animals or plants are enzyme inhibitors, and many drug molecules are enzyme inhibitors that inhibit an aberrant human enzyme or an enzyme critical for the survival of a pathogen. Since anti-pathogen inhibitors generally target only one enzyme, such drugs are highly specific and generally produce few side effects in humans. Medicinal enzyme inhibitors often have low dissociation constants, meaning a minute amount of the inhibitor will inhibit the enzyme. The discovery of enzyme inhibitors and their refinement are researched in biochemistry and pharmacology. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that women including May Mann Jennings (pictured) were responsible for creating Florida's first state park?
- ... that naval units from around 50 countries took part in the Pakistani naval exercise AMAN-23?
- ... that Hugo Krabbe stirred up much controversy in the interwar period by arguing that the law, not the state, is the true sovereign?
- ... that a 1943 performance of Darius Milhaud's Scaramouche used anagrams to disguise the suite and its composer from Nazi censors?
- ... that all three of Jane Severance's books for young readers include lesbian characters, including her first book, which was the first picture book to include such characters?
- ... that when the Numidian king Syphax attempted to rally his fleeing army at the Battle of Cirta he was thrown from his horse and captured?
- ... that Andrew Sorrell, State Auditor of Alabama, initially ran for election to the Alabama House of Representatives when his father declined to run for the seat?
- ... that Frederic Growse's book Bulandshahr: Or, Sketches of an Indian District annoyed the British Indian government so much that they allowed only one edition?
In the news
- A tornado outbreak (damage pictured) in Mississippi and Alabama, United States, leaves at least 25 people dead.
- The World Baseball Classic concludes with Japan defeating the United States for the championship.
- An earthquake in Afghanistan and Pakistan kills at least 30 people and injures more than 380 others.
- Kazakhstan's ruling party Amanat wins the legislative election.
- Swiss bank UBS announces its intention to acquire its competitor Credit Suisse in a government-brokered deal.
On this day
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- 193 – The Praetorian Guard assassinated Roman emperor Pertinax and sold the imperial office in an auction to Didius Julianus (coin pictured).
- 1802 – German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered Pallas, the second asteroid ever identified, although it was considered to be a planet at the time.
- 1933 – After an on-board fire that may have been the first incident of airliner sabotage, the Imperial Airways biplane City of Liverpool broke apart in mid-air, killing fifteen people.
- 1997 – In the Tragedy of Otranto, the Italian Navy vessel Sibilla collided with the Albanian civilian vessel Kateri i Radës, causing the latter to sink and leading to dozens of deaths.
- 2015 – A siege of a hotel in Mogadishu by al-Shabaab militants, which began the previous day and killed at least 20 people, ended with the Somali Armed Forces recapturing the premises.
- Stephen Harding (d. 1134)
- Eileen Crofton (b. 1919)
- Sybil Irving (d. 1973)
Today's featured picture
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Amilcare Ponchielli (1834–1886) was an Italian composer. Born in Paderno Fasolaro (now Paderno Ponchielli) near Cremona, then Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old. He is best known for his operas, most notably La Gioconda, the third and most successful version of which debuted at La Scala in Milan on 28 March 1880. The Dance of the Hours from that opera is widely known thanks in part to its use in Walt Disney's Fantasia in 1940 and in Allan Sherman's novelty song "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh". In 1881, Ponchielli was appointed the maestro di cappella of Bergamo Cathedral and a professor of composition at the Milan Conservatory, where his pupils included Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni, Emilio Pizzi, and Giovanni Tebaldini. He was married to the soprano Teresina Brambilla and died at the age of 51 in Milan. This formal photographic portrait of Ponchielli was taken in Milan and is in the archives of the music publisher Casa Ricordi. Photograph credit: Icilio Calzolari; restored by Adam Cuerden
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