Receptor kinetics pertaining to blockade of nerve-released transmitter at synapses

The question is raised as to whether competitive inhibitors should block responses of tissue to nerve-released neurotransmitter to the same extent as they block equivalent responses to exogenous agonist. From a simple dynamic model of synaptic events, which takes into account non-constancy of transmitter concentration in space and time, it is deduced that equal blockade of responses to nerve-released and exogenous transmitter substance will occur if: (i) there are locally many more receptor molecules than transmitter molecules; (ii) the active agonist–receptor complex, A_nR, has n = 1 ; and (iii) tissue response is insensitive to spatial or temporal inhomogeneity of AR. In such a case there will also be equal sensitivity of responses to other modes of inhibition: irreversible competitive, uncompetitive, and non-competitive. Equal blockade of responses to equi-effective endogenous and exogenous agonist will also occur if nerve stimulation gives rise to a steady uniform concentration of agonist, so that equilibrium kinetics are applicable. When n > 1 and/or when tissue responses reflect local peak A_nR, response to nerve-released transmitter will be relatively insensitive to receptor blockade by a competitive inhibitor. The same is true for irreversible competitive blockade or for modulation of receptor density. However, an uncompetitive inhibitor (e. g. a ‘channel blocker’) may be more effective against nerve-released agonist than against exogenous agonist.