Hi Smitty,
You said:
<< I asked a chemist once why Orientals & Amerindians turn red when they
drink alcohol. He said they lack an enzyme to break down the alcohol,
and it goes directly into their bloodstream.
Could you elaborate ?
Smitty>>
** Alcohol is detoxified in the human body in two enzymatic
steps. First, alcohol is oxidized to acetaldehyde by the enzyme
alcohol dehydrogenase. However, acetaldehyde is even more toxic than
alcohol, so it is quickly oxidized to acetate by a second enzyme,
aldehyde dehydrogenase. This enzyme appears in either an active or
inactive form is the one some races and ethnic groups are lacking.
Both of these enzymes use the cofactor nicotinamide adenine
dinucleotide (NAD) to provide the oxidizing power needed for these
transformations. The need for the special redox talents of NAD places
an important limit on the amount of alcohol that may be detoxified.
Human cells build a collection of variants of these two enzymes.
Six separate genes for alcohol dehydrogenase are found in the human
genome, and several of these show multiple alleles. To further
complicate the matter, active complexes may be formed in many cases by
mixing two different types into one dimeric structure. This leads to a
wide range of activities of the different forms, both in their
detoxification of alcohol and their transformations of similar
substrates.
For instance, a particularly active form of alcohol dehydrogenase
is common in people from the Pacific Rim. This might be a good thing,
except that many of these individuals also carry an inactive form of
aldehyde dehydrogenase, and thus they cannot metabolize the
acetaldehyde that is so efficiently formed. These people are highly
sensitive to alcohol, suffering from severe side effects of
acetaldehyde poisoning when they drink alcoholic beverages.
Two probable mechanisms involve the enzymes of alcohol
detoxification. The acetaldehyde formed in the first step may be a
major culprit. Acetaldehyde is a reactive compound that forms covalent
complexes with proteins and DNA, and thus may act as a mutagen.
Alcohol abuse also induces the production of a specific cytochrome
P450 enzyme —CYP2E1 — which is able to work with alcohol dehydrogenase
to oxidize alcohol. This enzyme, however, also forms dangerous
reactive oxygen species and can activate environmental procarcinogens
into their carcinogenic forms.
There is much more info on this topic. I've given you a place to
begin your own research. Here's an article:
http://sulcus.berkeley.edu/mcb/165_001/papers/manuscripts/_298.html
Good luck in your research!
On 2/5/07, Catherine Creel <[email protected]> wrote:
I'm glad this was brought up. What you're talking about here is P-450
enzymes. We all have them but what makes us biochemically unique is that we
all have differing amount of these particular enzymes. Occasionally, one or
more is completely absent. These enzymes are also highly polymorphic,
meaning that if you are of Asian descent you would most likely be deficient
in an enzyme called 2D6. If you were of Northern European descent you would
usually have plenty of 2D6.
The P-450 enzymes are a system of enzymes that detoxify drugs people take,
foods we eat, water we drink, and the air we breathe. Without these
enzymes we would be unable to survive.
Here is a primer on P-450 enzymes:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpardee/
--
Regards,
Catherine
"Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want
to, when all they need is one reason why they can." -- Mary Frances
Berry
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