PHAR 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Aldehyde Dehydrogenase, Anterograde Amnesia, Cerebral Atrophy

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Pharmacology and Toxicology
• Course: PHAR 100
• Professor: Bill Racz

Document Summary

Sugar + water + yeast = ethanol + carbon dioxide. Acetylaldehyde accumulation leads to the hangover effects: nausea, headache, dizziness. Acetate is broken down into co2 and water. Men can drink more alcohol without significant effects because they have higher levels of gastric dehydrogenase and a higher muscle to fat ratio. Alcohol biotransformation: aldehyde dehydrogenase in the rate limiting which means the alcohol gets more diluted. It means it is a graded response so that the more you consume the more heightened the effects will be. At very high doses it can cause coma, respiratory depression and death. Essentially it disrupts the lipid bilayer of cells and thus disrupts the way that neurons are processed. Alcohol is both water and fat soluble is can easily cross the blood brain barrier. Specifically it disrupts glutaminergic neurotransmission and decreases ndma responsiveness to glutamate.