Metabolic Inhibitors: A Comprehensive Treatise, Volume I focuses on the properties of inhibitors of metabolic processes or enzyme systems. The book explores a wide range of substances that interfere with (and usually retard) metabolic and enzymic processes, emphasizing the inhibitor rather than the metabolic or enzymic system that is affected. Organized into 15 chapters, this volume begins with a historical overview of research on the mode of action of biological inhibitors, touching on the principle of competitive inhibition by structural analogues. The book then turns to the concept of a competitive enzymic relationship by growth inhibitory analogues and their corresponding amino acids; the metabolic inhibitory effects of polypeptides and proteins; and the use of pentoses as analogues in carbohydrate metabolism. The reader is also introduced to the metabolic inhibitory effects of fatty acids; the intermediary metabolism of phospholipids; and the inhibition of purine and pyrimidine analogues. The remaining chapters discuss the role of nucleic acids and nucleoproteins in the regulation of cellular metabolism and the inhibition of amino acid decarboxylases, cholesterol, and steroid biosynthesis. This book will be of value to biochemists, advanced students, medical research workers, and research workers in the various fields of biological chemistry, as well as those working in the microbiological, botanical, and other agricultural fields.
