Final answer:
Increasing the number of inhibitors will generally decrease the overall rate of reaction. Inhibitors affect enzyme activity by either competitively binding to the active site or altering the enzyme's structure through noncompetitive inhibition, thereby slowing down the reaction rate.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that increasing the number of inhibitors will decrease the overall rate of reaction is generally true. Inhibitors are substances that bind to enzymes and reduce their activity. Enzyme inhibitors can either bind to the active site of the enzyme, hindering substrate binding, which is known as competitive inhibition, or they can bind to other parts of the enzyme to change its shape and thus the efficiency, known as noncompetitive inhibition.
In the context of feedback inhibition, an increase in product concentration leads to a decrease in the reaction rate as the end product can act as an inhibitor to the enzymes earlier in the pathway. This form of regulation helps maintain a balance of product and reactant concentrations within a cell.
Therefore, the presence of more inhibitors will indeed decrease the rate at which an enzyme-catalyzed reaction occurs by either blocking the substrate from binding to the enzyme or altering the enzyme's active conformation.