Amino acids energy production

When normal enteral feeding in not possible or is inadequate to meet an individual s nutritional needs, intravenous (IV) nutritional therapy or total parenteral nutrition (TPN) is required. Products used to meet the IV nutritional requirements of the patient include protein substrates (amino acids), energy substrates (dextrose and fat emulsions), fluids, electrolytes, and trace minerals (see the Summary Drug Table Electrolytes). 

The cycle oxidizes pyruvate (formed during the glycolytic breakdown of glucose) to C02 and H20, with the concomitant production of energy. Acetyl CoA from fatty acid breakdown and amino acid degradation products are also oxidized. In addition, the cycle has a role in producing precursors for biosynthetic pathways. 

The metabolic machinery of all animals must be provided with water, amino acids, energy, minerals and viteunins. In ruminemts, utlliz d le nutrients are provided by a combination of dietary sources plus those synthesized by rumen bacteria emd protozoa and until recently little attention has been directed towards dietary supplies of amino acids and B-conplex vitamins. However, information accrued during the last decade demonstrates that ruminal outflows of these nutrients is not always sufficient for high rates of productivity (2. 1.) ... 

The main role of the human thyroid gland is production of thyroid hormones (iodinated amino acids), essential for adequate growth, development, and energy metaboHsm (1 6). Thyroid underfunction is an occurrence that can be treated successfully with thyroid preparations. In addition, the thyroid secretes calcitonin (also known as thyrocalcitonin), a polypeptide that lowers excessively high calcium blood levels. Thyroid hyperfunction, another important clinical entity, can be corrected by treatment with a variety of substances known as antithyroid dmgs. 

Physiological Role of Citric Acid. Citric acid occurs ia the terminal oxidative metabolic system of virtually all organisms. This oxidative metabohc system (Fig. 2), variously called the Krebs cycle (for its discoverer, H. A. Krebs), the tricarboxyUc acid cycle, or the citric acid cycle, is a metaboHc cycle involving the conversion of carbohydrates, fats, or proteins to carbon dioxide and water. This cycle releases energy necessary for an organism s growth, movement, luminescence, chemosynthesis, and reproduction. The cycle also provides the carbon-containing materials from which cells synthesize amino acids and fats. Many yeasts, molds, and bacteria conduct the citric acid cycle, and can be selected for thek abiUty to maximize citric acid production in the process. This is the basis for the efficient commercial fermentation processes used today to produce citric acid. 

The question of the stability of the biomolecules is a vital one. Could they really have survived the tremendous energies which would have been set free (in the form of shock waves and/or heat) on the impact of a meteorite Blank et al. (2000) developed a special technique to try and answer this question. They used an 80-mm cannon to produce the shock waves the shocked solution contained the two amino acids lysine and norvaline, which had been found in the Murchison meteorite. Small amounts of the amino acids survived the bombardment , lysine seeming to be a little more robust. In other experiments, the amino acids aminobutyric acid, proline and phenylalanine were subjected to shock waves the first of the three was most stable, the last the most reactive. The products included amino acid dimers as well as cyclic diketopiperazine. The kinetic behaviour of the amino acids differs pressure seems to have a greater effect on the reaction pathway than temperature. As had been recognized earlier, the effect of pressure would have slowed down certain decomposition reactions, such as pyrolysis and decarboxylation (Blank et al., 2001). 

As already mentioned, a continual inflow of energy is necessary to maintain the stationary state of a living system. It is mostly chemical energy which is injected into the system, for example by activated amino acids in protein biosynthesis (see Sect. 5.3) or by nucleoside triphosphates in nucleic acid synthesis. Energy flow is always accompanied by entropy production (dS/dt), which is composed of two contributions ... 

Now we will return briefly to Sections 3.8-3.11 and 4.6-4.8 where we considered the general problem of multiple flows, here of H, C, N, O, S and P. We observe immediately that all the products are from the same small molecule environmental sources and are required to be formed in relatively fixed amounts using the same source of energy and a series of intermediates. Controlling all the processes to bring about optimum cellular production are feedbacks between them and linked with the code which generates proteins, and here we note particularly enzymes, i.e. catalysts. The catalysts are made from the amino acids, the synthesis of which they themselves manage, while the amino acids control the catalysts so as to maintain a restricted balanced set of reaction pathways in an autocatalytic assembly. It is also the feedback controls on both the DNA (RNA) from the same units used in the... 

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