In: Biology
Discuss the 3 pathways of ethanol metabolism
There are 3 pathways or steps that take place in Ethanol metabolism.
1) In the first step of ethanol metabolism, the oxidative metabolism of ethanol takes place by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase which is present in the cytoplasm. this ethanol is converted into acetaldehyde. Co-factor NAD gets reduced by receiving a hydrogen atom from alcohol and converted to NADH. This acetaldehyde is highly toxic and thus detoxified to acetate by an enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase in the liver.
2) The second pathway for alcohol metabolism is the NADPH cofactor-dependent microsomal ethanol oxidizing system (MEOS) including cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1). It takes place in a microsome where ethanol is converted to the aldehyde by an isoenzyme called CYP2E1. In this reaction, NADH is oxidized to NAD, and the release of water takes place.
3) The third pathway takes place in peroxisome known as the catalase pathway. It plays a minor role in the conversion of ethanol to aldehyde. Here, ethanol is converted to aldehyde with help of peroxide and release of water takes place.