Abstract

A NEW EQUATION FOR CALCULATING THE NUMBER OF ATP MOLECULES GENERATED FROM FATTY ACIDS

Yahya khawaja, Laura Scrano, Sabino A. Bufo and Rafik Karaman*

ABSTRACT

ATP, Adenosine triphosphate, is a complex entity requires for all organisms regardless of their size. All organisms such as bacteria and humans utilize ATP as a main source of their energy and a steady supply of ATP is so critical such that in poisoning cases such as cyanide poisoning the cells die as a result of protein production’s shutdown due to cyanide binding to the copper atom in cytochrome oxidase of the oxidative phosphorylation electron transport. This paper documents a novel approach for calculating the number of ATP molecules generated from oxidation of long chain saturated and unsaturated fatty acids with either even or odd numbers of carbon atoms. Our new approach is summarized in an equation based on the oxidation states of the different carbons of the fatty acids. Using this approach, the time required to calculate the number of ATP molecules generated from the oxidation of any long fatty acid is less than 2-3 minutes whereas in the regular, current, used approach the time needed is exceeding few hours. Furthermore, using the regular approach dictates the illustration of all fatty acid biochemical oxidation processes while our new approach documented herein does not.

Keywords: Saturated fatty acids, unsaturated fatty acids, ?-oxidation, ATP, adenosine triphosphate, Energy currency.