BIOCHEMISTRY - Certain disease conditions may

create an imbalance of one or

LECTURE- Week 11 more electrolytes which is a
serious condition.
- The biochemistry teaches about
the normal and abnormal
Biochemistry metabolite levels and this
- is the study of the chemical knowledge helps the nurse to take
substances found in living special care of the patient by
organisms and the chemical maintaining the fluid and
interactions of these substances electrolytes.
with each other.
- about how cells manufacture the
molecules needed for life and how
the chemical reactions by which Homeostasis
life is maintained occur.
- The ability or tendency of a living
- The study of molecular basis of
organism, cell, or group to keep
life.
the conditions inside it the same
despite any changes in the
Carl Neuburg
conditions around it, or this state of
- a German scientist first proposes
internal balance.
Biochemistry in 1903.
- In a nutshell, Biochemistry is
important in nursing because it
gives knowledge about normal
❖Significance in chemical process within the living
cells and any change in it helps in
Nursing the diagnosis of disease, thereby
- It is essential that a nurse being a helping the nurse to provide an
medical professional, study and effective care to the patient.
understand biochemistry. Having a
thorough understanding of the
biochemical processes taking Biological Substance
place within the body will help
nurses to identify the alterations - A chemical substance found within
that can occur during disease a living organism. -
conditions so that an effective - Divided into two groups:
medical treatment can be bioinorganic substance and
facilitated. bioorganic substance.
Bioinorganic substances include water
- Biochemistry teaches about and inorganic salts.
homeostasis and electrolyte Bioorganic substances include
balance and a nurse should carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic
understand the importance of it acids.
in the body since all the organs
and tissues in the body function
to maintain this homeostasis.
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by chlorophyll is the energy
source.
- Plants have two main uses for
carbohydrates they produce. In the
form of cellulose, carbohydrates
serve as structural elements, and
in the form of starch, they provide
energy reserves for the plants.
- Dietary intake of plant materials is
the major carbohydrate source for
humans and animals.
- Carbohydrates have the following
functions in human:
Biological Molecules
● Carbohydrate oxidation provides
- The large molecules necessary for energy.
life that are built from smaller ● Carbohydrate storage, in the form
organic molecules are called of glycogen, provides a short-term
biological macromolecules. energy reserve.
- There are four major classes of ● Carbohydrates supply carbon
biological macromolecules atoms for the synthesis of other
(carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, biochemical subsctances.
and nucleic acids), and each is ● Carbohydrates form the structural
an important component of the cell framework of DNA and RNA
and performs a wide array of molecules.
functions. ● Carbohydrates linked to lipids are
- Combined, these molecules make structural components of cell
up the majority of a cell’s mass. membranes.
Biological macromolecules are ● Carbohydrates linked to protein
organic, meaning that they contain function in a variety of cell-cell and
carbon. cell-molecule recognition
processes.

Carbohydrates
- The most abundant class of
bioorganic molecules. Classification of Carbohydrates
- Though their abundance in the
human body is relatively low, 1. Monosaccharides
carbohydrates constitute about - Monosaccharides are
75% by mass of dry plant simple sugars.
materials. - They cannot be hydrolyzed
- Green (chlorophyll-containing) into a simpler form. Both
plants produce carbohydrates via glucose and fructose are
photosynthesis. In this process, monosaccharides.
carbon dioxide from the air and - Colorless, crystalline solids
water from the soil are the that are soluble in water
reactants, and sunlight absorbed and insoluble in a non-polar
solvent.
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- These are compound that covalently bonded to each
possesses a free aldehyde other.
or ketone group. - Like monosaccharides,
- They are classified disaccharides are
according to the number of crystalline, water-soluble
carbon atoms they contain substances.
and also on the basis of the - Sucrose (table sugar) and
functional group present. lactose (milk sugar) are
● Glucose disaccharides. Hydrolysis
- Glucose can be seen of a disaccharide produces
generally in the fruit juices two monosaccharide units.
and formed in the body by
hydrolysis of cane sugar, ● Sucrose
starch, lactose, and - Cane sugar or sucrose is a
maltose. Glucose is said to disaccharide of fructose
be the sugar of the body. and glucose. Sucrose is
Glucose structure can be tremendously abundant in
depicted in the form of a plants and is commonly
ring or chain. It is found in known as table sugar.
blood, fruits, honey and ● Lactose
under abnormal conditions, - Lactose can be found in
in urine. milk. A sugar composed of
● Fructose galactose and glucose
- Fructose can be seen subunits.
naturally in honey, - The compound is a white,
tomatoes, and apples. water-soluble,
Hydrolysis of cane sugar in non-hygroscopic solid with
the body can also give up a mildly sweet taste. It is
fructose. Generally, used in the food industry.
fructose is the sweetest
monosaccharide and is 3. Oligosaccharides
prepared by sucrose - A carbohydrate that
hydrolysis. contains three to ten
● Galactose monosaccharides units
- Galactose is more covalently bonded to each
commonly found in the other.
disaccharide, lactose or - “Free” oligosaccharides are
milk sugar. It is found in seldom encountered in
nature combines with other biochemical systems.
sugars. - They are usually found
associated with proteins
2. Disaccharides and lipids in complex
- Is a carbohydrate that molecules that have both
contains two structural and regulatory
monosaccharides units functions.
4. Polysaccharides
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- A polymeric carbohydrate - Cellulose is made up of
that contains many glucose monomers that are
monosaccharides units linked by bonds between
covalently bonded to each particular carbon atoms in
other. the glucose molecule.
- Polysaccharides contain ● Glycogen
more than 10 - is the storage form of
monosaccharide units and glucose in humans and
can be hundreds of sugar other vertebrates, and is
units in length made up of monomers of
- They are primarily glucose.
concerned with two - Glycogen is the animal
important functions ie. equivalent of starch and is
Structural functions and the a highly branched molecule
storage of energy. usually stored in liver and
- Both cellulose and starch muscle cells.
are naturally occurring - Whenever glucose levels
polysaccharides. decrease, glycogen is
● Starch broken down to release
- the stored form of sugars in glucose.
plants and is made up of
amylose and amylopectin .
(both polymers of glucose).
- Plants are able to
synthesize glucose, and the
excess glucose is stored as
starch in different plant
parts, including roots and
seeds.
- The starch that is
consumed by animals is
broken down into smaller
molecules, such as
glucose. ➔ CHIRALITY: Handedness
- The cells can then absorb in Molecules
the glucose.
● Cellulose
- is one of the most abundant - An important property of many
natural biopolymers. The molecules, including most
cell walls of plants are carbohydrates, is the property of
mostly made of cellulose, “handedness”, which is a from of
which provides structural isomerism.
support to the cell. - Molecules that possess
- Wood and paper are mostly “handedness” exist in two forms: a
cellulosic in nature. “left-handed” form and a
“right-handed” form.
- These two forms are related to
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 pair of hands are related to each
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other.
- The relationship is that of mirror
images. A left hand and a right
hand are mirror images of each
other.
- An object or a system is chiral if it
is distinguishable from its mirror
image.

Mirror Images
- The concept of mirror images is
the key to understanding molecular
handedness.
❖ Chirality
- All objects, including all molecules, - Any molecule that contains
have mirror images. a carbon atom with four
- Objects can be divided into two different groups bonded to
classes on the basis of their mirror it in a tetrahedral
images: objects with orientation possess
superimposable mirror images handedness.
and objects with - The handedness
nonsuperimposable images. generating carbon atom is
called chiral center.
- A chiral center is an atom
● Superimposable
in a molecule that has four
- images that coincide at all
different groups bonded to
points when the images are
it in a tetrahedral
laid upon each other.
orientation
● Nonsuperimposable - A molecule that contains
- images where not all points a chiral center is said to
coincide when the images be chiral.
are aid upon each other. - A chiral molecule is a
molecule whose images
are not superimposable.
- Chiral molecules have
handedness.
- An achiral molecule is a
molecule whose mirror
images are
superimposable.
- Achiral molecules do not
possess handedness.

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 Indicate whether it is a chiral or
achiral:

➔ Stereoisomerism:
Enantiomers and
★ Guidelines in Identifying Diastereomers
Chiral centers
- Stereoisomers are isomers that
● A carbon atom involved in a have the same molecular and
multiple bond (double or triple structural formulas but differ in
band) cannot be a chiral center the orientation of atoms in
since it has fewer than four groups space.
bonded to it. To have four groups - These could be broadly classified
present, all bonds about the chiral as enantiomers and
center must be single bonds. diastereomers.
● A carbon atom that has two like
groups bonded to it cannot be a
chiral center since it does not meet
the requirements of four different
groups.
● Carbon atoms in a ring system, if
not involved in multiple bonding,
can be chiral centers.
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Enantiomers
● When the structure of Molecule A
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- Enantiomers are pairs of and Molecule B overlap, the Me
compounds with exactly the and H group of each structure do
same connectivity but different not match up.
spatial orientation.
- Enantiomers are not the same as
each other; one enantiomer cannot
be superimposed on the other.
- Enantiomers are mirror images of
each other.
- They differ in their arrangement at
positions called chiral centers,
made of one central atom
connected to four unique atoms, or
groups of atoms.
- Molecules that are enantiomers
must have at least one chiral
center.

Diastereomers
- Diastereomers are defined as
compounds which have the
same molecular formula and
sequence of bonded elements
but which are
- Molecule A, along with its nonsuperimposable, non-mirror
complementary molecule, images.
Molecule B, are enantiomers. The - Non-mirror image, non-identical
central carbon in both cases acts stereoisomers.
as a chiral center.
➢ Let us consider the formula of
2,3-dichloropentane which
➢ How do we Identify contains two chiral centres. Now
compare the two forms of
Enantiomers? 2,3-dichloropentane given below:

● The simplest way to identify an

enantiomer is to recognize that two
molecules are mirror images of
each other
● Enantiomers are also
non-superimposable, meaning that
the two mirrored molecules cannot
perfectly overlap.

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❖ Are the following enantiomers,

diastereomers or neither?

- By convention, in a Fischer
projection formula for a
monosaccharides, the carbon
chain is always positioned
vertically with the carbonyl
group (aldehyde or ketone) at or
near the top.
- An aldehyde group is denoted
using the notation CHO.

- For this particular molecule, the

handedness of the two
enantiomers is specified by using
the designated D and L.
- Enantiomer with the chiral center
-OH group on the right = D
- Enantiomer with the chiral center
➢Designating Handedness -OH group on the left = L

Using the Fischer Projection

Formulas
- A two-dimensional structural
notation for showing the spatial
arrangement of groups about
chiral centers in molecules.
- In a Fischer projection formula,
a chiral center is presented as the
intersection of vertical and
horizontal lines. ● OH and HO are acceptable and
- The atom at the chiral center, the only difference is about the
which is almost always carbon, is charge on oxygen.
not explicitly shown.

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