Preface

Pediatrics Obstetrics Gynecology Surgery Preventive Medicine

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Introduction to Biochemistry

Preface

This course is to be intended to involve a basic discussion of biochemical principles, the various molecules involved in biochemistry, and how they work together to create and degrade biochemical molecules. The first chapter focuses primarily on the biochemistry of water, which is the universal solvent because it dissolves most of the molecules in the body. The second chapter presents amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. There are some amino acids that are essential, meaning the human body cannot manufacture them but they must be consumed in the diet to be incorporated into proteins In the third chapter of the course, simple sugars, disaccharides, and polysaccharides will be the focus of the discussion. Different organisms have storage polysaccharides, including glycogen (in humans), starches, and cellulose (which can’t be metabolized by humans. Chapter four of the course will involve a discussion of fatty acids and lipids. Like certain essential amino acids, there are specific omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids that cannot be made by the body but must be incorporated as part of the diet in order to make longer chain fatty acids and triglycerides. Chapter five of the course will involve a basic focus on nucleotides, which are the building blocks of nucleic acids, such as RNA and DNA. Both long-chain biochemical molecules are important to gene expression, transcription, and translation of proteins from genetic material.

In chapter six of the course, enzymes and enzymology will be discussed. Most enzymes are protein-based and are translated/made in the ribosomes. There are some enzymes, called ribozymes, that are made from RNA that act in the ribosomes of the body to create proteins. The seventh chapter of the course will focus on most aspects of aerobic metabolism. Aerobic metabolism is the main form of metabolism that occurs in the human body as we have oxygen to drive this form of metabolism. The eighth chapter of the course will mainly focus on anaerobic metabolism, which is the type of metabolism that occurs in anaerobic organisms that don’t utilize oxygen or by muscle cells during intense activity when there isn’t enough oxygen to fuel the muscle cells. In the ninth chapter of the course, the main discussion will be on the topic of glucose catabolism. Glucose gets broken down first in glycolysis into pyruvate, lactic acid, and other products. The breakdown products can stay that way or can go into further oxygen-based reactions to further oxidize the sugar. The tenth chapter of the course will focus mainly on the citric acid or Krebs cycle, which is the way in which glycose metabolites get further oxidized into CO2 and water, with preservation of most of the intermediary products. The eleventh chapter of the course will be a discussion of gluconeogenesis and glycogenesis. In gluconeogenesis, the main outcome is the creation of glucose from other types of molecules. In some cases, the glucose is then metabolized while, in other cases, the glucose gets stored as glycogen in liver, fat, and muscle cells. The last and twelfth chapter of the course will present the ways biochemistry interacts with various aspects of medicine, including normal physiological processes, disease states, food biochemistry, and the pharmacology of drugs as it applies to the biochemistry of medicines and drugs developed and taken by the human body at all times. Altogether, most aspects of the biochemistry of the human body will be discussed in this course so that students understand the processes that go on in the body’s cells to drive the synthesis and breakdown of molecules using energy in some processes and creating energy in other processes.