CBS Computational Biology Services

CBS applies the latest developments in enzyme kinetics to diagnose enzyme inhibition. The two main advantages for our clients are (1) less work as they need a lower number of experimental measurements to achieve a complete diagnose of the inhibition and, (2) comprehensiveness, because the diagnosis of inhibition is not limited to the more common linear inhibition, but it also includes hyperbolic, parabolic and rational 2,2 inhibitions, allowing to distinguish among 20 types of inhibition (including competitive, uncompetitive, non-competitive, and mixed inhibitions). CBS classification scheme of inhibition follows the nomenclature recommended by IUBMB.

The techniques applied are based not on absolute rates of reaction but on relative rates, namely on the degree of inhibition, which is given by (v0-vi)/v0, where v0 is the rate of the non-inhibited reaction and vi is the rate of the inhibited reaction. Therefore, the experimental noise is decreased and a lower number of experimental points are needed to achieve a complete and rigorous diagnose. The CBS client can also be sure about the accuracy of the diagnose, because CBS applies both graphical and numerical methods simultaneously together with information statistics (Akaike information criterium) to discern between types of inhibition. In this way, the drawbacks associated with numerical fittings, which are very powerful but when applied as a black-box can lead to erroneous conclusions favouring usually more complex modes of inhibition, are overcome.

A full description of these methods and an application to an experimental example can be found in Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 1624, 11-20.