1. You have begun working in a lab studying drugs that inhibit metabolism. Your
ID: 261182 • Letter: 1
Question
1. You have begun working in a lab studying drugs that inhibit metabolism. Your lab has discovered compounds naturally occurring in foods that inhibit acyl-carnitine/carnitine transporter and are tissue specific. Compound A inhibits the transporter in hepatocytes only and compound B inhibits the transporter in muscle cells only.
A.) Compare and contrast the effects of inhibition of acyl-carnitine/carnitine transporter on metabolism in myocytes vs hepatocytes.
B.) What liver changes/symptoms might you expect to find from these metabolic alterations if a person had been consuming an excess of compound A?
C.) What muscle changes/symptoms might you expect to find from these metabolic alterations if a person had been consuming an excess of compound B?
Explanation / Answer
Acyl-carnitine/carnitine translocase is an enzyme which is useful to transport the fatty acid complexes and carnitine accross the inner mitochondrial membrane. Since the fatty acid complexes cannot cross the mitochondrial membranes without assistance. First fatty acid bound the Co enzyme A and cross the external mitochondrial membrane there it exchanges the co enzyme A for carnitine with the help of carnitine palmitoyltransferase I. Then this complex enters the mitichondrial matrix through facilitated diffusion with the help of carnitine - acylcarnitine translocase.There the acyl-carnitine complex is disrupted by carnitine palmitoyltransferase II and the fatty acid rebinds to CoA. then the Carnitine diffuses back across the membrane by carnitine-acylcarnitine translocase into the mitochondrial intermembrane space. This phenominan is called the carnitine shuttle system.
If a person consumes excess of compound A it affects the fatty acid catabolism in the liver which leads the increased number of droplets in the liver and subsequently that leads to become fatty liver.
If a person consumes excess of compound B it affects the fatty acid catabolism in the muscle and decreased tolerance to long term physical exercise, inability to fasting for more than a few hours, muscle weakness and a strong acidic smell on the breath (due to protein breakdown).
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