Plasma Proteins Mnemonic

Hello Everyone,
 Lets discuss plasma proteins.

1.How do we classify them?

• They are classified into Albumin, Globulin and Fibrinogen.
• Globulins are further classified into Alpha , Beta Globulins and Gamma Globulin.
• Alpha Globulin is further divided into Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 Globulins.

Memorising the examples of them is simple. 

Examples of Beta Globulins can be remembered as follows:

         B PTH

B-Beta Lipoproteins(LDL)

P-Plasminogen

T-Transferrin

H-Hemopexin

Interesting Fact:

Acute-phase proteins are a class of proteins whose plasma concentrations increase (positive acute-phase proteins) or decrease (negative acute-phase proteins) in response to inflammation. This response is called the acute-phase reaction.

• Positive acute-phase proteins increase in inflammation e.g., C-reactive protein, mannose-binding protein, complement factors, ferritin, ceruloplasmin, serum amyloid A and haptoglobin.
• Negative acute-phase proteins decrease in inflammation. Examples include albumin, transferrin, transthyretin, retinol-binding protein, antithrombin, transcortin. 

Thats all,

Thank you,

Chaitanya Inge

Initiation factors in eukaryotic translation mnemonic

Hello Everyone,

Lets discuss Initiation factors today. Here's the the mnemonic:

1. elF-1: 1 looks like i . So it causes Dissociation of 80 S

2. eLF-2: Two- Formation of Ternary complex. Also GTP needed

3. eLF-3: 3 looks like B. hence it causes Breakdown(dissociation of 80 S)

4. elF-4:   

cap binding protein complex elF-4F=  elF-4E + elF-4G+ elF-4A . Binds to 5’End of mRNA through elF-4E  

elF-4A and elF-4B: A has helicAse activity.Makes use of ATP 

                                B makes things Better. :)

                                Both help  reduce complex secondary structure of 5’end of m-RNA.                                                                                                           (A+B=reduce Complexity)

5. eLF-5: 5 looks like S. So it causes: 

      1. releaSe of initiation factors

      2. aSSociation of 40S and 80S Subunits

Here are some diagrams that will help you:

That’s all,

Thank you,
Chaitanya Inge

Diagnostic Enzymes in Myocardial Infarction

   

Hello Everyone,

Here’s a quick mnemonic on Sequence of elevated enzymes in myocardial infarction. I got it from https://imgusmlestep1.blogspot.in. Originally it was  like this Time to CALL 911. I have modified it. It goes like this

                             Time to CALL 12 24 30 48.

The numbers represent time of peak elevation of the enzymes.

Sequence of elevated enzymes are:

        Troponin: Cardiac Troponin I and Cardiac Troponin C (12 hours)

        Creatine Phosphokinase (MB) (24 hrs)

        Aspartate Transaminase (30 hrs)

        Lactate Dehydrogenase 1 (48 hrs) 

Important Facts:

Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is highly sensitive and specific for damage to cardiac tissue. cTnI appears in plasma within 4–6 hours after an MI, peaks in 8–28 hours, and remains elevated for 3–10 days.Elevated cTns, in combination with the clinical presentation and characteristic changes in the electrocardiogram, are currently considered the “gold standard” in the diagnosis of a MI.

Creatine Phosphokinase (MB):Appearance of this hybrid isoenzyme in plasma is virtually specific for infarction of the myocardium .Following an acute MI, CK2 appears approximately 4–8 hours following onset of chest pain, reaches a peak of activity at approximately 24 hours, and returns to baseline after 48–72 hours.

A quick comparison between Cardiac troponin and Creatine Phosphokinase:

Troponin is more sensitive than CK-MB because more troponin is found in the heart per gram of myocardium and that a greater percentage depleted from the heart by cardiac injury arrives in the blood 

With regard to specificity, troponin elevations are almost always specific for cardiac injury, except for the infrequent analytical false positives caused by fibrin interference and/or cross-reacting antibodies. CK-MB is not specific for cardiac injury, as a small amount is found in skeletal muscle.

I am very thankful to IkaN for helping me with Troponin and CK-MB.  :)

Thats all,

Thank you

Chaitanya Inge  

Vitamin B3 and pellagra mnemonics

Hello!

This post is all about niacin aka vitamin B3 and it's deficiency with loads of mnemonics. Who is excited?

1. How to remember Niacin is vitamin B3:

- You can remember the three vowels in nIAcIn, so it's vitamin B three.
- N has 3 strokes, so Niacin is B3
- NIA - B3

2. Vitamin B3 deficiency, Pellagra, is clinically manifested by photosensitive dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia.

Pellagra mnemonic:
"B3 causes D3"
Diarrhea, Dermatitis, Dementia.

3. Pellagra tends to occur in areas where people eat maize (or corn, the only grain low in digestible niacin) as a staple food.

Mnemonic: Corny people can't be nice. (Corn can't have niacin)

People - Pellagra. PP!

Corny people can't be nice and amazing! Get it? A-maize-ing! Hahahahha! I'm so pun-ny and funny!

4. The amino acid tryptophan is needed to make niacin, serotonin and melatonin.
Mnemonic: Have a nice trip to serotonin land (Serotonin rhymes with Melatonin).

Why is this fact clinically significant?
Carcinoid syndrome leads to excess production of serotonin, which depletes  tryptophan. There's not enough tryptophan to produce niacin, resulting in pellagra.

5. Isoniazid (INH) use can cause vitamin B3.

Mnemonic: INH has 3 letters. B3 deficiency!
Also, isoNIAzid. For NIAcin deficiency.

6. Lastly, you should know about Hartnups disease which is due to defective neutral amino acid transporter on renal and intestinal epithelial cells 

Here's a mnemonic by usmle1mikmonics:
HARTNUP Disease
Hartnup
Aminoaciduria
Renal (also intestinal) / Recessive
Transporter defect / Tryptophan deficiency
Neutral amino acids / Niacin deficiency / Nicotinamide supplements (Treatment)
Urine (Tryptophan lost in urine)
Pellagra / high Protein diet (Treatment)
D’s - Dermatitis, Dementia, Diarrhea

That's all!
-IkaN

Pathophysiology of myopathy caused during hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism

Hello awesomites! Today's topic of discussion is - Myopathy in thyroid disease.

Interestingly, it is caused by both, hypothyroidism as well as hyperthyroidism.

What is myopathy?

It is a disease of muscle tissue where, ultimately, muscles get weak and are unable to perform work due to deficiency of ATP.

Why is there myopathy in hyperthyroidism?

The thyroid hormone is a catabolic hormone. Hyperthyroidism increases energy expenditure, glucose turnover, lipolysis, and protein breakdown (proteolysis). But here is the catch - Hyperthyroidism increases whole-body protein turnover and breakdown before any measurable changes in energy expenditure or glucose and fat metabolism, suggesting that amino acid and protein metabolism is an early and primary target for thyroid hormone action in humans. It was therefore concluded that the thyroid-hormone concentration may be an important factor in regulating muscle proteolysis. The altered protein metabolism causes myopathy.

Then, one may ask, why myopathy in hypothyroidism? Less thyroid hormone should lead to less protein breakdown, shouldn't it?

Well, this is a good question! Slightly complex and tricky to answer though. 

In hypothyroidism, there is abnormal glycogenolysis, defective mitochondrial oxidative metabolism and triglyceride storage.

Abnormal glycogenolysis and triglyceride storage: Less glucose is released and utilised because of this. The body starts using more proteins usually derived from muscles leading to myopathy.

Mitochondrial oxidative metabolism defect: Thyroid hormone is responsible for activation of bc1 complex also known as complex 3 & succinate dehydrogenase. Less activation of bc1 leads to less formation of ATP from glucose.... So again, the body switches to proteins from muscles as a source of energy!

That's all!
Stay cool :)

~Ojas

Acute intermittent porphyria mnemonic

Acute intermittent porphria - AIP - That's the mnemonic!

Enzymes requiring thiamine mnemonic

Can you enlist the enzymes requiring thiamine?

If you can, give yourself a pat on the back and don't read further.

If you can't, give yourself a pat on the back, because you are going to learn how to remember it! :D

Lesch-Nyhan syndrome mnemonic

Here's a mnemonic on Lesch-Nyhan disease!

Glycogen Storage Diseases : Mnemonic

Hi everyone.
I'm back with a short post. This one is about Glycogen storage diseases which, again,  we all hate to remember  :'D Hope you like it.

So Remember :

Very Pompously CAMe Her Tears.

1. Very =  Von Gierke's
2. Pompously = Pompe's
3. C = Cori's / Forbe's 
4. A = Anderson
5. M = McArdle's
6. Her = Her's (we'll at least Remember this one :'D)
7. Tears = Tarui's

So that's that.
Now how do we remember which is Muscular and which is hepatic ?
Simple.

Remember :
The Muscular get kissed under the Mistle Toe.

So the ones involving the Muscles are :
Mistle = McArdle
Toe = Tarui's.

Also remember :
Pompeii the city was a wh*re. So it went everywhere and hence Pompe's is both Muscular and Hepatic.

That's all for now. It may seem like a lot of crap to simply memorize these Glycogenosis but you'll realise they form an excellent aid for memory :D and are super important whether you want to do USMLE or Indian PG.
So c'mon ! Burn those Glycogens in your liver and get some Glucose into your head ;)
Stay awesome.
Happy studying.

The GLUT's : Mnemonic

Hello everyone !
I'm back with another short post on biochemistry.
It's about the Glucose transporters which we all hate :D So let's get down to it.

GLUT - Short for Glucose Transporters , are channels present in our body that bring about glucose uptake. They are forms of Facilitated transport mechanism and basically occur across a Concentration gradient.

Now it's important for us to understand their location , function and regulation if we want a good understanding of Glucose metabolism. But this can get a little tedious , hence this post.

There are a total of 4 major GLUTs. Out of which one is dependent on insulin and the others are not.
So first we're doing insulin independent ones.

Remember :

BBB
Kid's LiPs are
PiNK.

~~~~~

GLUT 1 -
Remember : BBB.

B - Blood ( The RBCs)
B - Baby  (So fetal tissue)
B - BBB ( The Blood brain barrier itself )

~~~~~

GLUT 2 -
Remember :  Kid's LiPs

Kid's - Kidneys
Li - Liver
Ps - Pancreatic Beta cells

~~~~~

GLUT 3 -
Remember : PiNK

Pi - Placenta
N - Neurons
K - Kidneys

_____________________________
Now we come to the Dependent one.
~~~~~
GLUT 4 -
Remember :
Father Mother Depend.

Father - Fat
Mother - Muscles ( Cardiac / Skeletal)

Now how do we remember this ?
In general the Mother and Father are who we depend on ! But in biochemistry the mother and father themselves depend on insulin. ! And the baby ( BBB etc) are independent.

Got it ?
Hope this helped.
It's something I've struggled with.
Anyway.
Happy studying. !
Stay awesome

~A.P.Burkholderia

Niemann-Pick disease notes and mnemonic

Hello!

Niemann-Pick disease (NPD; also called sphingomyelin-cholesterol lipidosis) is a group of autosomal recessive disorders associated with splenomegaly, variable neurologic deficits, and the storage of sphingomyelin.

Oxidase vs. Oxygenase

Another confusing yet very simple thing

• Oxidase does oxidation in Redox reactions.
• Oxygenase adds an Oxygen to the substrate

It's not that hard to remember right?

Jay :)

Dehydrogenase vs. Dehydratase

Another simple thing that we often get confused with in Biochemistry!

• Dehydrogenase removes Hydrogen
• Dehydratase remove H2O

Simple right?

Jay 

Synthase vs. Synthetase

This is very simple guys! Synthases don't use ATP to make the new bond between substrates while synthetases need an ATP.

ok fine! How to remember it?

Think of the additional T that comes in syntheTase is from ATP! ;)

Got a way to memorize it?

Jay :)

Enzymes and the Type of Reactions they Catalyze ( Part 6 : LIGASES)

Hello guys, we come to an end of this 6 part enzyme series and also this is the 500th Medicowesome post for 2016! Woohoo! :D

Ok, back to our business! Ligases, what to they do? Obvio, they LIGATE! Or simply connect! But connect what?

Think of these guys as a Plumber who connects those pipes! ;)

Major subclasses

• Synthetase - Formation of new bond between substrates using the energy from an ATP
• Synthase - Link two molecules without using the energy from ATP (Confusing with Synthetase? They use ATP. Check here for a memory aid.)
• Carboxylase - Formation of a new bond between a substrate and a CO2 using the energy from an ATP

Are we ok guys?

Jay  :) 

Enzymes and the Type of Reactions they Catalyze ( Part 4 : LYASES)

With part 4 we come to a little confusing group of Enzymes guys! LYASES! They are called Lyases, of course because they do Lyse! :P

ok the major subclasses?

• Dehydratase - Removal of H2O from a substrate (Confusing with Dehydrogenase?Read Part1)
• Decarboxylase - Removal of CO2 from a substrate
• Deaminase - Removal of NH3 from a substrate
• HYDRATASE - ADDING of H2O to a substrate
• Aldolase - Produces Aldehydes via elimination reactions

Any questions guys? :)

Jay

Enzymes and the Type of Reactions they Catalyze ( Part 3 : HYDROLASES)

Back with Part 3 guys! It's Jay with Hydrolases! :P

There are 5 major classes of Hydrolases. They always Hydrolyse means breaking it down with the help of H2O.

• Lipase - Hydrolysis of ESTER linkages of lipids
• Protease - Hydrolysis of AMIDE linkages of proteins
• Nuclease - Hydrolysis of SUGAR PHOSPHATE ESTER linkages of Nucleic Acids. Phosphodiesterases also do the same
• Carbohydrase - Hydrolysis of GLYCOSIDIC bonds of Carbohydrates
• Phosphatase - Hydrolysis of PHOSPHATE ESTER bonds.

Also please note, that the types of bonds in CAPITAL ITALICIZED letters are the major types of bonds in those biomolecules as well as the bonds that break due to these enzymes.

Jay :)

Enzymes and the Type of Reactions they Catalyze ( Part 2 : TRANSFERASES)

Hey guys, Jay here once again with Part 2. Here we will talk about Transferases!

Transferases, do Transfer! But transfer what? There are two major types of Transferases!

• Transaminase --> Transfer of an Amino group between substrates
• Kinases --> Transfer of a Phosphate group between substrates often from ATP
• Methyltranferase --> Tranfers single-carbon units between substrates
• Phosphorylase -->Transfers inorganic phosphate to a substrate

Trivia!

What does Kinase even mean? It comes from the greek work Kinein means "To move". It originally had nothing to do with Phosphates. But now we almost exclusively use this for Phosphate transfers. :)

Jay :)

Enzymes and the Type of Reactions they Catalyze ( Part 1 : OXIDOREDUCTASES)

Guys the post is quite long. So I thought to break it into 6 different parts. This post will cover Oxidoreductases.

There are 5 main types of Enzymes in this category. As the name suggests, two of them are Oxidases and Reductases. The other ones are Dehydrogenases, Oxygenases and Peroxidases.

• Oxidases --> Oxidizes a substrate
• Reductases --> Reduces a substrate
• Dehydrogenases --> A double bond is introduced to the substrate, by removal of two H atoms. The H are accepted by a Coenzyme.
• Oxygenase --> Directly incorporates Oxygen into the substrate
• Peroxidase --> Uses Hydrogen Peroxide H2O2 as an electrone acceptor

Question? Yes! Removal of Hydrogen and adding of Oxygen are also considered a type of Oxidation because it increases the oxidation number of the substrate! Pre-Med Organic Chemistry anyone? ;)

See you soon with the other categories guys!

Jay :)

P.S. - Don't confuse Dehydrogenase with Dehydratase!!! We go through that here:)

Carbohydrate Loading

I learnt this concept today while going through Harper's. This is especially for the fitness enthusiasts, since learning it can help you to build up your stamina better.