Foreign Compounds and Intermediary Metabolism: Sulfoxidation Bridges the Divide

What is it about?

It is widely appreciated that as a xenobiotic travels through an organism and interacts with the biochemical machinery of a living system, it most probably will undergo a number of metabolic alterations usually leading to a cluster of differing chemical species. Indeed, the modern 'metabonomic' approach, where earlier studied drug metabolism profiles have been reassessed, has indicated that there are normally many more previously unrecognised minor metabolites, and when all such biotransformation products areconsidered, then their total number is legion. It is now being recognised also that the same metabolic alteration of a substrate, especially a xenobiotic substrate, may be catalysed by more than one enzyme and that the previbusly sacrosanct notion of an enzyme's 'substrate specificity' may well be inverted to read a substrate's 'enzyme preference'. The following brief article attempts to highlight another aspect where our general acceptance ofthe 'status quo' needs to be reconsidered. The conventionally acknowledged division between the collection ofenzymes that undertake intermediary metabolism and the group of enzymes responsible for xenobiotic metabolism may be becoming bluned. It may well be a prudent time to reassess the cunent dichotomous view. Overcoming ine(ia, with a realignment of ideas or alteration of perception, may permit new concepts to emerge leading to a more profound understanding and hopefully eventual benefits for mankind.

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Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Why is it important?

A review of the inter-relationship between endobiotic and xenobiotic metabolism