Cell Chemistry: Medical Examiner And Analyze A Case
In the following scenario, you will play the role of a medical examiner and analyze a case study based on scientific data.
You're working at the medical examiner's office at Pima County Hospital. It has been a slow day, with only one homicide and a dead squirrel that you checked for rabies. The squirrel was cleared for rabies and you get ready to head home. Just as you're ready to leave, you get a call from the front desk. “We've got a kid you'll want to look at right away, it looks suspicious.”
Performing autopsies on kids is your least favorite part of your job, but you realize you are needed to solve medical mysteries, and it looks like you've got one here.
You receive the hospital report and take note of the child’s last hours:
At 9 AM, the child’s mother returns from the store to find the little girl vomiting, not feeling well, and sleepy. The mother put her down to nap. Ten minutes later, she noticed that the child's breathing became irregular and slow. She tried to wake her daughter, but was not able to do so. The child became comatose. At noon, the child was admitted to the hospital, with no heartbeat or spontaneous breathing
Cell Chemistry
Your Name
Your Institution of Affiliation
June 2, 2017
In its most general definition, Cellular respiration is a series of metabolic processes which transform nutrients into energy, that makes life possible. This form of energy is in the form of ATP or Adenosine Triphosphate, which is basically structured with a nitrogenous base, a sugar, and a phosphate group (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). ATP is used by the body to perform almost any function from the most basic ones, such as respiration, to more complex processes such as mental processing. In the process of cellular respiration, molecules which came from the process of digestion, as well as substrates (a material which is converted and catalyzed using enzymes), were used in order to continue fueling the reactions which are taking place inside the cell, without them being changed by the reactions itself. More specifically, these cellular processes take place because of protein enzymes that create the biochemical reactions needed for the conversion of ADP to ATP, which is main energy currency of the cell (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.).
Without all of these components that make up cellular respiration possible, these reactions would cease to exist thus rendering cellular (as well as life in general) impossible because energy would not be created, transported, and utilized at the molecular level. An example of this would be the absence of ADP. Without this molecule, energy (in the form of phosphate bonds) would not be transported from one place to another since ADP serves as the molecule to which additional phosphate molecules could attach, before being delivered to other places in the body for usage. However, without the enzymes, reactions would also cease to exist, since one of the main function of these enzymes is to ‘lower’ the amount of energy needed in order for cellular respiration to happen, and, in this case, the energy to bind additional packets of phosphate into available ADP molecules. Lastly, these reactions would also not be possible without the help of substrates. In contrast to enzymes, substrates make enzymes work because these are the molecules which act as ‘triggers’ to reactions which then initiates a series of steps which are necessary for cellular respiration.
Going back to the case, it was stated in the police report that a few of the mother’s anti-seizure pills were ‘missing’. Assuming that the child took some of the pills, then this could lead to either mild sedation, coma, and even death if taken in lethal doses (Drugs.com, n.d.). Upon the autopsy...