Metabolism

1. Nutrition, Diet and Body Weight

• An introduction to nutritional needs, diet choices and body weight classifications.

2. Energy Reactions in Cells

• An introduction to the reactions that occur within cells to produce energy.

• Understand the pathway that converts food to its constituent molecular components, which are then used to create energy.

4. Vitamins, Cofactors, Minerals and Trace Elements

• Organise vitamins and minerals by enzyme and tissue function so deficiency and toxicity patterns follow from mechanism.

• Understand the stages of glycolysis.
• Understand the metabolism of galactose (a sugar found in milk) and the Pentose Phosphate pathway (a side route of glucose breakdown that makes NADPH, a helper molecule for building and protecting cells, and the sugars used in DNA and RNA).

• To understand the stages of respiration that are oxygen dependent.
• To understand the production of ATP.

• Understand the structures of different types of lipids.
• Understand the structures and purpose of fatty acids and ketone bodies.
• Understand the purpose of lipid transport and metabolism in the body.
• Understand three diseases of the body relating to lipids.

• Understand the role of nitrogen and nitrogen balance (nitrogen taken in compared with nitrogen lost, a measure of protein turnover) in the body.
• Understand the different types of amino acids that exist, and some functions of amino acids.
• To describe the process through which amino acids can be used as an energy source.
• To understand conditions such as phenylketonuria (an inherited inability to break down phenylalanine, an amino acid), homocystinuria (an inherited disorder of breaking down the amino acid methionine, which raises homocysteine) and refeeding syndrome (dangerous fluid and electrolyte shifts when feeding restarts after starvation).

9. Purine and Pyrimidine Metabolism

• Compare the synthesis of nucleotides (the building blocks of DNA and RNA, made from purine and pyrimidine bases), their salvage (recycling of used bases) and disposal, then use pathway blocks to explain urate (the salt of uric acid, which causes gout when it builds up), HGPRT (hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase, an enzyme that recycles purines) and treatment mechanisms.

10. Inborn Errors of Metabolism and Newborn Screening

• Use substrate accumulation and product deficiency to understand inherited pathway blocks and why screening before symptoms matters.

• To understand the metabolism of alcohol and the factor that limits how fast it happens.
• To understand the use of disulfiram (a drug that makes drinking alcohol cause unpleasant effects) as a treatment for alcohol dependence.

• To understand what is meant by a reactive oxygen species (unstable oxygen-containing molecules that can damage cells)
• To understand the different ways reactive oxygen species are used by the body
• To understand the harmful consequences of reactive oxygen species and why their levels must be kept under control
• To understand paracetamol toxicity and how it is treated

• To understand the processes of glycogenesis (making glycogen from glucose), glycogenolysis (breaking glycogen down to glucose) and gluconeogenesis (making new glucose from other molecules).
• To understand the processes of fatty acid oxidation and synthesis.
• To understand the hormonal control of energy storage.

• To be able to apply knowledge about feedback loops to temperature regulation
• To be able to describe the body’s responses to keep core temperature in the normal range
• To be able to describe the temperature values associated with hyperthermia (abnormally high body temperature) and hypothermia (abnormally low body temperature)
• To be able to explain why certain groups of people struggle with thermoregulation

• To be able to understand how energy is stored and released in the body
• To understand how hormones influence metabolism
• To understand how metabolism changes in pregnancy
• To understand how exercise affects metabolism and the role of the Cori Cycle (lactate made in muscle is turned back into glucose in the liver) in exercise