As we discussed in class, alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) will oxidize several alcoh

Question

As we discussed in class, alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) will oxidize several alcohols. We also discussed when methanol is the substrate for ADH that the toxic compound formaldehyde is produced, and that ethanol can be used as a competitive inhibitor to prevent this problem. Assume a dog has accidently consumed 50 mL of windshield washer fluid (50% methanol), the owners knows that unless he corrects for this soon the dog will be in trouble. The owner has several bottles of wine that he recently purchased for a party (12 % ethanol). How much wine does the dog need to consume to reduce the activity of ADH for methanol to 5% of its normal Km?

ADH-ethanol Km = 1mM

ADH-methanol Km = 10mM

Assume the “working volume” of the dog is 15L

Assume the densities of both liquids are 0.9 g/mL

Enzyme Kinetics of Biochemistry!

Explanation / Answer

The dog has consumed 50ml of 50% methanol.

Since both the liquid densities are equal let us tell the amount of methanol consumed is 25g, we need 25 g of ethanol to neutralize it

The available concentration of ethanol is 12% 12g/100 ml. to obtain 25 g of ethanol; v1xc1 = v2 x c2; we require 210 ml of ethanol.

Sine Km of ADH methanol is higher than ADH ethanol This volume of 210 is more than enough to neutralize the effect.

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