Meta-Biol

• Pathways

Pyruvate sits at an intersection of key pathways of energy metabolism. It is the end product of glycolysis and the starting point for gluconeogenesis, and can be generated by transamination of alanine. It can be converted by the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex to acetyl CoA (Reed and Hackert 1990) which can enter the TCA cycle or serve as the starting point for the syntheses of long chain fatty acids, steroids, and ketone bodies depending on the tissue and metabolic state in which it is formed. It also plays a central role in balancing the energy needs of various tissues in the body. Under conditions in which oxygen supply is limiting, e.g., in exercising muscle, or in the absence of mitochondria, e.g., in red blood cells, re-oxidation of NADH produced by glycolysis cannot be coupled to generation of ATP. Instead, re-oxidation is coupled to the reduction of pyruvate to lactate. This lactate is released into the blood, and is taken up primarily by the liver, where it is oxidized to pyruvate and can be used for gluconeogenesis (Cori 1981).

The metabolism of pyruvate provides one source of acetyl-CoA which enters the citric acid (TCA, tricarboxylic acid) cycle to generate energy and the reducing equivalent NADH. These reducing equivalents are re-oxidized back to NAD+ in the electron transport chain (ETC), coupling this process with the export of protons across the inner mitochondrial membrane. The chemiosmotic gradient created is used to drive ATP synthesis.

Metabolic processes in human cells generate energy through the oxidation of molecules consumed in the diet and mediate the synthesis of diverse essential molecules not taken in the diet as well as the inactivation and elimination of toxic ones generated endogenously or present in the extracellular environment. The processes of energy metabolism can be classified into two groups according to whether they involve carbohydrate-derived or lipid-derived molecules, and within each group it is useful to distinguish processes that mediate the breakdown and oxidation of these molecules to yield energy from ones that mediate their synthesis and storage as internal energy reserves. Synthetic reactions are conveniently grouped by the chemical nature of the end products, such as nucleotides, amino acids and related molecules, and porphyrins. Detoxification reactions (biological oxidations) are likewise conveniently classified by the chemical nature of the toxin.

At the same time, all of these processes are tightly integrated. Intermediates in reactions of energy generation are starting materials for biosyntheses of amino acids and other compounds, broad-specificity oxidoreductase enzymes can be involved in both detoxification reactions and biosyntheses, and hormone-mediated signaling processes function to coordinate the operation of energy-generating and energy-storing reactions and to couple these to other biosynthetic processes.