The Mystery Of The Seven Deaths

The Mystery of the Seven Deaths: A Case Study in Cellular Respiration In this case study, there were seven murders of which the cause is hypoxia. All seven victims were from the same neighborhood with similar symptoms. These symptoms are dizziness, confusion, headache, shortness of breath, and vomiting. The individuals in this case study are in fact similar. They all have the same symptoms, and live in the same area. Questions a chief medical officer would ask are; how was the individual acting for the past few days, were they in pain, what sort of activities does the individual endure during a regular day, was the individual under stress, and etc. Yes, these deaths are connected. They are connected due to the fact, that all the victims took a Tylenol which could have affected a vital process in their bodies. After reading and analyzing the autopsy, the cellular function that was disrupted was the cellular respiration process. The term cellular respiration refers to the biochemical pathway in which cells release energy from the chemical bonds of food molecules and provide that energy for the essential processes of life. All living cells must carry out cellular respiration. The autopsy reported major mitochondrial damage, which lead to my conclusion of cellular respiration being interrupted. A part of cellular respiration takes place in the mitochondria. With damaged mitochondria, cellular respiration is not continued causing an individual to die. The blood oxygen levels are inconsistent with the part of the autopsy that states that immediate cause of the death was hypoxia. Glucose is the starting molecule for cellular respiration. Glucose is the initial substrate for respiration. Glucose is the starting molecule, and is split during glycolysis and forms 2 pyruvate molecules. In glycolysis, two molecules of ATP are used up and four are produced. In cellular respiration, there is a process called Glycolysis. In this process, glucose molecules that are from carbohydrates are broken down into molecules of pyruvate. This later goes into the Krebs cycle. Pyruvate is a product in cellular respiration. NAD+ is a co-enzyme that carries hydrogen. It is a substrate. NADH increases the production of ATP, the cell’s major "energy currency." This increase in ATP in turn increases cellular energy production. NADH is a substrate. The levels of NAD+ and NADH are abnormal in these individuals. The electron transport is blocked causing the inability of NADH to give its electron to NAD+, so it remains oxidized. Cyanide blocks the transfer of electrons through the ETC, so it would back up through the chain and eventually stop processing it all. The presence of cyanide causes oxygen consumption to decrease and ATP synthesis to decrease.