BioAcyl Corp

The redox code consists of four principles by which biological systems are organized (Fig. 1). The first is the use of the reversible electron accepting and donating properties of nicotinamide in NAD and NADP to provide organization of metabolism, operating at near equilibrium. Substrate oxidations are linked to reduction of NAD⁺ and NADP⁺, which in turn are linked to ATP production, catabolism, and anabolism, respectively. The second principle is that metabolism is linked to protein structure through kinetically controlled redox switches in the proteome, which determine tertiary structure, macromolecular interactions and trafficking, activity, and function. The abundance of proteins and reactivity of sulfur switches with oxidants vary over several orders of magnitude to determine specificity in biological processes. The third principle is that of redox sensing, in that activation/deactivation cycles of redox metabolism, especially involving H₂O₂, support spatiotemporal sequencing in differentiation and life cycles of cells and organisms. The fourth principle is that redox networks form an adaptive system to respond to the environment from microcompartments through subcellular systems to the levels of cell and tissue organization. This adaptive redox network structure is required to maintain health in a changing environment and, if functionally impaired, contributes to disease and organism failure.