LECTURE NOTES ON :

Introduction to Biochemistry

Ajilore B.S. (MBChB, PhD)

INTRODUCTION

 The word “biochemistry” was first proposed in 1903 by a

German chemist , Carl Neuberg (1877- 1956) as a
combination of two discipline: biology and chemistry. He
was an early pioneer in biochemistry, and often referred
to as the “Father of Biochemistry”.

 Biochemistry concern was developed by placing

biological phenomena on firm chemical foundations.

 E.g. chemical oxidation and respiratory process.

C + O2 CO2

C6H12O6 + 6O2 6H2O + 6CO2

 Significance of Biochemistry in Medical Sciences

Knowledge of Biochemistry is essential to all life sciences, for

example:

 Biochemistry of nucleic acids (RNA & DNA) is the basis of

genetics

 Study of body functions (physiology) completely overlaps

with biochemistry

 Pharmacology and pharmacy rest on a sound knowledge of

biochemistry since most drugs are metabolized by enzyme-
catalyzed reactions

 Poisons act on biochemical reactions or processes; this is the

subject matter of toxicology.

 Biochemistry is the basis of pathology (study of diseases),

such as inflammation, cell injury, and cancer.

 Microbiology, zoology, and botany employ biochemical

approaches and biochemistry is increasingly becoming their
common language
MEDICAL/ CLINICAL BIOCHEMISTRY
 Clinical biochemistry is to provide biochemical
information for the management of patients.

 Knowledge of biochemistry is needed to

understand changes that occur in the chemical
constitution and biochemical mechanism of the
body.

 Thediscipline involves application of analytical

chemistry and knowledge of biochemistry to
measure alterations in the normal body
function with a view to elucidating the nature
and cause of disease.
 Basis for Biochemical Tests
- Biochemical tests assist in the diagnosis and
management, and can also be used to screen
population.

i. Diagnosis: biochemical tests are used to confirm or

eliminate a preliminary diagnosis that was based on
history and examination taken by a clinician. These tests
alone are not enough to provide a complete diagnosis.

ii. Prognosis: biochemical tests are also used to provide

prognostic evaluation of the patient. E.g. Serial
measurement of serum:
 albumin level: a continuing decrease in its level
suggests poor prognosis

 cardiac enzymes activities: creatinine kinase in case of

myocardial infarction
 uric acid levels in gout etc.
iii. Monitoring : biochemical tests are used to follow the
course of an illness during treatment e.g.

 measurement of blood glucose to monitor effect of

insulin administration in a diabetic patient.
- Biochemical tests are also used to detect when
complication may arise in the use of some drugs with
narrow therapeutic dosage in the treatment of patient
 E.g. continuous monitoring of plasma lithium level in the
treatment of manic-depressive conditions with lithium
salts.

iv. Screening: biochemical tests are now widely being

used in the fields of public health and community
medicine to determine if a disease is present in an
apparently healthy population or not.
- This population under scrutiny is selected on the basis of
age, sex, geographical location, occupation etc.
- E.g. PAP smear and HPV testing for cancer of cervix in
Specificity of tests
- Specificity of a test is a measure of incidence of negative
results or True Negative (TN) in subjects that do not have
the disease, expressed as percentage.

- A test with very high specificity will not ‘tag’ a subject

who do not have the disease as having it.
- TNs are those patients without the disease who are
accurately identified by the test as being unaffected by
the disease.

Sensitivity of tests
- Sensitivity of a test is a measure of incidence of positive
results or True Positive (TP) in patients known to have the
disease, expressed in percentage.
- A test of high sensitivity will not fail to diagnose a patient
as having the disease for which the test is designed.

- TPs are patients who are ill as a result of the illness

Practical considerations for laboratory test requests
1. Types of specimens:
a. Blood: whole blood, serum or plasma
- The bulk of the investigations carried out in clinical
biochemistry laboratory are performed with blood samples.
b. Urine
c. Faeces
d. Others are Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), amniotic fluid, saliva,
sweat, samples of dietary intake.

2. Collection and transport of specimens

- Several factors associated with specimen collection can
influence the results of biochemical investigations.

3. Labeling of specimens and request forms

- Every specimen collected must be accompanied by a laboratory
request form
- The specimen must match the request form and both must bear
the same identification marks like names, hospital numbers etc
- Both the specimen and request form must be sent to the
- The practice of labeling must be carried out immediately the
specimen is collected. This prevents possible mix up of
specimens.

4. Specimen containers and use of preservatives

- Each of the 4 departments (clinical biochemistry or chemical
pathology, haematology, microbiology and anatomic
pathology) in pathological sciences is unique in the nature of
specimen each one uses.

- Even when similar specimens are used, the uniqueness is

maintained by use of different chemicals as preservatives in
different specimen containers.

- The use of appropriate laboratory specimen container helps to

prevent specimen destined for one laboratory being sent to a
wrong one which would have caused delay in analyzing the
specimen collected.

- Common preservatives or anticoagulants used in specimen

containers are listed in the next slide.
Type of anti- Colour of Use Laboratory
coagulant/ container top test suited
preservative (colour code) for
Heparin (Na, Li, Orange, green Plasma or Biochemical
NH4) or blue) whole blood tests
RFT, LFT,
Cardiac profile
like LDH, AST)
None (Plain White or plain Serum Biochemical
container) (RFT, LFT, LP),
haematological
,
microbiological
tests
EDTA (Na2, K2, Lavender Plasma or Haematological
K3) whole blood tests
e., LP, HbA1c
Oxalate (Na or Yellow or grey Plasma or Biochemical
K) Fluoride (Na) whole blood tests
Iodoacetate (inhibit e.g Glucose
(Na) glycolysis)
Universal Red Urine, faeces, Biochemical
Factors that affect constitution of blood
specimens
1. Dietary constituents:
- For example, dietary intake of mainly carbohydrate food in the
previous few days prior to a glucose tolerance test (GTT) can
affect the result.

2. Drugs
- For example, phenobarbitone affects GTT

3. Diurnal variation
- For example, assay for plasma cortisol

4. Posture of subjects/ patients

- For example, ambulant or in bed patients, or exercises
 Definitions of Biochemistry?

 It is the study of chemical processes in living organisms.

 Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living

processes

 Biochemistry is the science concerned with the chemical

basis of life (Gk bios “life”).

 Since the cell is the structural unit of living systems,

thus, biochemistry can also be described as the science
concerned with the chemical constituents of living cells
and with the reactions and processes they undergo.

 The major objective of biochemistry is to understand and

describe all chemical processes associated with living
cells at molecular level.
The question is: How can we
study chemical processes of all
living organisms since biology is
diverse & complex from
extremely small, single cell
prokaryotes such as bacteria, to
very large multicellular
eukaryotes, such as human
being like you?

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  At the molecular level, living systems look similar.

“What is true of E. coli is true of the elephant.”---Jacques

Monod

 This similarity is a reflection of how life evolved. All organisms

share a common evolutionary origin

• Biochemistry simply deals with structures and functions of

cellular components otherwise called biological molecules
such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acids.
These are all polymers.

o Protein is formed from amino acids (monomers);

Carbohydrates from sugars like monosaccharide,
disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides; Lipids
from fatty acids and glycerols; Nucleic acids from nucleotides.
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 All chemical changes within organisms-
either degradation of substances to gain
energy or building up of complex molecules
of life- are collectively termed metabolism.

These chemical changes depend on the

action of organic catalysts known as
enzymes, and enzymes, in turn, depend for
their existence on the genetic apparatus of
the cell.

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 Levels of cell
Organization in
Living Things

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 Cell organization:
o How organisms FUNCTION and survive in continually changing
environments
 5 Levels of Organization:

 Chemical Level: includes all chemical substances necessary

for life e.g. heme group of hemoglobin molecule, inorganic
ions like sodium, sugars like glucose, amino acids, nucleic
acids, fatty acids etc. Together form the next higher level

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 Cellular Level: Cellular arrangement is of two types; the
Prokaryotic cells and Eukaryotic cells, & there are many
different types of cells

 Tissue Level: A tissue is a group of cells that perform a

specific function and the basic types of tissues in the human
body include epithelial, muscle, nervous, and connective
tissues

 Organ Level: An organ consists of 2 or more tissues that

perform a particular function (e.g., heart, liver, stomach etc)
 System Level: An association of organs that have a common
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function; the major systems in the human body include
Arrangement of cell forming tissue, organ and system
levels

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 What are your expectations in
Biochemistry as students of Health
sciences?

1. Apply your knowledge of general and organic chemistry to

predict the structures and interactions of biological molecules
from their elemental compositions and structures;

2. Develop and understanding of how the chemical structures and

physical properties of biological molecules relate to their
functions;

3. Develop an understanding of how biological molecules interact

with one another to produce complex, self-regulating systems,
and how chemical energy is utilized to drive and sustain these
processes.

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 Chemical Elements and Molecules of Life
 There are 81 stable elements in nature. Fifteen of these
are present in all living things, and a further 8–10 are
only found in particular organisms.

 More than 99% of the atoms in animals’ bodies are

accounted for by just four elements:
 Hydrogen (H): 63.5%,
 Oxygen (O): 25.6%
 Carbon (C): 9.1%
 Nitrogen (N): 1.06%

Total= 99.3%
 Hydrogen and oxygen are the constituents of water,
which alone makes >80% of cell mass

 Together with carbon and nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen

are also the major constituents of the organic
compounds on which most living processes depend.
 Many biomolecules also contain sulfur (0.04%) or
phosphorus (0.18%)
 These macroelements are essential for all organisms

 A second biologically important group of elements, which

together represent only about 0.5% of the body mass,
are present almost exclusively in the form of inorganic
ions

 This group includes the

 alkali metals sodium (0.07%) and potassium(0.06%), and
 the alkaline earth Metals magnesium(0.01%) and
calcium(0.25%)

 The halogen chlorine (0.05%) is also always ionized in

the cell

 All other elements important for life are present in such

small quantities that they are referred to as trace
 These trace elements include:

a. Transition metals such as

 iron (0.0006%),
 zinc (0.0002%),
 copper (0.000 06%),
 cobalt (0.0000003%) and
 manganese (0.000 06%)

b. A few nonmetals, such as

 iodine (0.00000075%) and
 selenium (0.000000045%), can also be classed as
essential trace elements
 Biomolecules
 Most biomolecules are derivatives of simple compounds
of carbon (C), oxygen (O), hydrogen (H), nitrogen (N),
sulfur (S), and phosphorus (P)

 The biochemically important oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur

compounds can be formally derived from their
compounds with hydrogen (i. e., H2O, NH3, and H2S)

 In biological systems, phosphorus is found almost

exclusively in derivatives of phosphoric acid, H3PO4

 If one or more of the hydrogen atoms of a non-metal

hydride are replaced formally with another group, R—e.
g., alkyl residues—then derived compounds of the type R-
XHn–1, R-XHn–2-R, etc., are obtained

 In this way, alcohols (R-OH) and ethers (R-O-R) are

 Primary amines (RNH2), secondary amines (R-NH-R) and
tertiary amines (R-N-R’R") amines are obtained from
ammonia (NH3)

 Thiols (R-SH) and thioethers (R-S-R’) arise from

hydrogen sulfide (H2S)

 Since such groups are much more reactive than the (R)
to which they are attached, they are referred to as
functional groups

 The ‘R’ group is hydrocarbon which consists of hydrogen

and carbon

 The chemistry of living organisms is organized around

carbon

 All molecules that contain carbon are called organic

(except for CO2).
 To these carbon skeletons are added groups of other
atoms, called functional groups, which confer specific
chemical properties on the molecule
 Molecules differ in structure and function, in part,
because of different functional groups.

 Most biomolecules can be regarded as derivatives of

hydrocarbons, with hydrogen atoms replaced by a variety
of functional groups to yield different families of organic
compounds.
 Examples of these organic compounds are:

 alcohols, which have one or more hydroxyl groups;

 amines, with amino groups;

 aldehydes and ketones, with carbonyl groups;

 carboxylic acids, with carboxyl groups

Examples of Functional Groups of Biomolecules
 Major Macromolecules of Life
 Large biological molecules are called macromolecules.

 There are 4 major biological molecules in life:

 Carbohydrates

 Lipid

 Proteins and

 Nucleic acids

 Macromolecules are built by combining smaller building

blocks into polymers.
 Polysaccharides (large carbohydrates) are polymers of
monosaccharides
 Fats are built from fatty acids and glycerol
 Polysaccharides (large carbohydrates) are polymers of
monosaccharides

 Fats are built from fatty acids and glycerol

 Proteins are polypeptides - polymers of amino acids.

 Nucleic acids are polymers of nucleotides.

 All disease has a biochemical
basis
Biochemistry

Carbohydrates Lipids Nucleic acids

Proteins

Diabetes Atherosclerosis Genetic

Sickle cell
Mellitus diseases
anemia

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 REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
1. http://library.thinkquest.org/12413/structures.html
2. http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/hillchem3/
medialib/media_portfolio/text_images/
3. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 4th edition.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?
rid=mboc4.section.1864
4. Harper’s Illustrated Biochemistry. Twenty-sixth edition.
Chapter 1
5. Colour Atlas of Biochemistry. Second Edition. Pages 10-
13.
6. Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry. Fourth Edition.
Chapter 1
7. Clinical Biochemistry for Students of Pathology. Chapters
1 and 2.