Which term describes a compound that stabilizes an inactive receptor state, reducing constitutive activity?

Which term describes a compound that stabilizes an inactive receptor state, reducing constitutive activity?

• A. Agonist
• B. Inverse agonist
• C. Partial agonist
• D. Competitive antagonist

Answer: (B)

Constitutive activity is signaling that occurs from receptors even without any ligand bound. Inverse agonists are the compounds that preferentially bind to the inactive receptor conformation and stabilize it, shifting the balance away from the active form. By doing so, they reduce the baseline or constitutive signaling of the receptor. This is what sets them apart from agonists (which promote activation) and partial agonists (which produce partial activation). A neutral antagonist, by contrast, blocks other ligands but does not change the level of basal activity. So the term that describes a compound stabilizing an inactive receptor state and reducing constitutive activity is inverse agonist.

Constitutive activity is signaling that occurs from receptors even without any ligand bound. Inverse agonists are the compounds that preferentially bind to the inactive receptor conformation and stabilize it, shifting the balance away from the active form. By doing so, they reduce the baseline or constitutive signaling of the receptor. This is what sets them apart from agonists (which promote activation) and partial agonists (which produce partial activation). A neutral antagonist, by contrast, blocks other ligands but does not change the level of basal activity. So the term that describes a compound stabilizing an inactive receptor state and reducing constitutive activity is inverse agonist.