Given the scenario/situation, respond to all questions with complete sentences.
One of your colleagues, Margaret, tells you about her medical situation one day in the lab. She states that she recently went to the doctor because she has been gaining substantial amounts of weight and she canât figure out why. She also feels like she never has enough energy (severe exhaustion). She has tried to lose the weight by exercising, but claims that her âmuscles hurtâ every time she tries to do so. Her doctor runs some tests and determines that Margaret has a mutation in isocitrate dehydrogenase, which is an enzyme that functions in the citric acid cycle. This mutation results in a non-functional enzyme, and as a result, the citric acid cycle functions at a very low rate.
a) Using your knowledge of cellular respiration, explain why Margaret is showing the following symptoms: weight gain (why is she storing fat instead of burning it), severe exhaustion, and muscle pain when she exercises.
Margaret then tells the doctor that she really wants to lose weight, and as heard of a compound called dinitrophenol (DNP). The doctor then explains to Margaret that DNP is extremely unsafe. He explains that the compound has been found to cause some patients to become very sick and die. He tries to explain that DNP uncouples the chemiosmotic machinery by making the lipid bilayer of the inner mitochondrial membrane leaky to H+.
b) Explain how the effects on the chemiosmosis could cause weight loss and death.
c) How would you describe DNP works using the second law of thermodynamics?
d) What type of reaction does DNP create and draw a graph of the free energy changes of that reaction?
e) Come up with an alternative, safer treatments for Margaretâs condition. Explain how it would work.
Given the scenario/situation, respond to all questions with complete sentences.
One of your colleagues, Margaret, tells you about her medical situation one day in the lab. She states that she recently went to the doctor because she has been gaining substantial amounts of weight and she canât figure out why. She also feels like she never has enough energy (severe exhaustion). She has tried to lose the weight by exercising, but claims that her âmuscles hurtâ every time she tries to do so. Her doctor runs some tests and determines that Margaret has a mutation in isocitrate dehydrogenase, which is an enzyme that functions in the citric acid cycle. This mutation results in a non-functional enzyme, and as a result, the citric acid cycle functions at a very low rate.
a) Using your knowledge of cellular respiration, explain why Margaret is showing the following symptoms: weight gain (why is she storing fat instead of burning it), severe exhaustion, and muscle pain when she exercises.
Margaret then tells the doctor that she really wants to lose weight, and as heard of a compound called dinitrophenol (DNP). The doctor then explains to Margaret that DNP is extremely unsafe. He explains that the compound has been found to cause some patients to become very sick and die. He tries to explain that DNP uncouples the chemiosmotic machinery by making the lipid bilayer of the inner mitochondrial membrane leaky to H+.
b) Explain how the effects on the chemiosmosis could cause weight loss and death.
c) How would you describe DNP works using the second law of thermodynamics?
d) What type of reaction does DNP create and draw a graph of the free energy changes of that reaction?
e) Come up with an alternative, safer treatments for Margaretâs condition. Explain how it would work.
