Q.Drugs that bind to the receptor site and inhibit its natural function are called ________.

Receptors are proteins central to the body's cell-to-cell communication system. Most are embedded within the cell membrane, with only a small extracellular portion carrying the active binding site projecting outward. Chemical messengers - neurotransmitters and hormones - bind at this external site, and the binding event changes the receptor's three-dimensional shape through an induced-fit process; it is this shape change, propagated to the receptor's intracellular end, that transmits the message into the cell without the messenger itself ever entering it. Different receptors respond selectively to different messengers because their binding sites differ in shape, geometry and amino-acid composition. Drugs acti …