Metabolites

This is a substance involved in intermediary metabolism. Regulatory mechanisms maintain their dynamic concentration at a constant level in a healthy organism. Their average concentrations determine the properties of norms. In cases of pathologies, the concentrations of metabolites change, specifically depending on a certain disease. Many biochemical methods of laboratory diagnostics of various diseases are based on this. Many metabolites enter the body with food and are precursors of other metabolites. Substances in a living cell gradually transform into one metabolite, from which another is formed, and so on. Such transformations are called metabolic pathways. For example, the metabolic pathway of glucose breakdown to lactic acid forms the following sequence: glucose – glucose-6-phosphate – fructose-6-phosphate – fructose-1,6-diphosphate – phosphoglyceraldehyde – 1,3-diphosphoglyceric acid – phosphoenolpyruvic acid – pyruvic acid – lactic acid. Each metabolite is formed from its precursor, catalyzed by a specific enzyme, and becomes a substrate for another enzyme. Selective interruption of the metabolic chain with an antimetabolite – a structural analogue of a metabolite, which is used as a drug, is based on this. Metabolites can turn into final metabolic products eliminated from the body. Carbon dioxide, water, urea, uric acid, glucuronides, and sulfates are included in this group of metabolites.

Source | Glossary of Most Commonly Used Biomedical Terms and Concepts | Lithuanian University of Health Sciences | Academician Professor Antanas Praškevičius, Professor Laima Ivanovienė