Biology Forums - Study Force

What are the effects of Tylenol 3 (condine, caffeine and Acetaminophen) on the activity of catalase the enzyme?

Nothing to my knowledge. Tylenol 3 contains codeine and that is converted into morphine in the liver. Catalase breaks down hydrogen peroxide into hydrogen and oxygen and is found nearly everywhere in the body.

In what context are you asking this question?

what would happen if i added tylenol 3 diff concentration( low, medium and high) to the reaction of catalase and hydrogen peroxide

There have been studies that have shown significant increases in catalase expression (in mice) after treatment with 10, 20 and 30 mM acetaminophen, but codeine in particular, known to my knowledge. Remember, catalase is an antiperoxidative enzyme, so it's only specific for one time of substrate (peroxide).

i heard that certain concentrations of codeine acts  non competitive inhibitors to catalase.. it this true?

I don't think so either, although it could be a possibility especially since the concentration of catalase as you pointed out duddy went up, in order for the body to compensate for the lack of catalase, it needs to make more.

what? i dont get it could you explain further pls

duddy pointed out that the concentration went up "significantly" in the presence of Tylenol (acetaminophen). If catalase is being inhibited non-competitively, it's no longer active, right?,  in order to compensate for the inhibited enzyme, the body says, I need to make more, and that's why the concentration of enzyme could likely go up

yeah you guys are right, i actually did the lab and found that the greater the concentration of tylenol 3 the faster the reaction rate which was quite surprising

So, solved?

not yet lol :(, i need to know why tho, ive been trying to research everywhere but i cant seem to find out why

Didn't you mention that it acts as a noncompetitive inhibitor?

yeah, but that doesnt seem to make any sense because if it was an inhibitor the reaction rate would be slowly rather than faster when i increased the concentration of tylenol 3

Well, think about it for a second. If this is happening in a rat or human body, for instance, you get a build-up of hydrogen peroxide. As the concentration of H2O2 increases more than ordinary, the body's natural response is to create more enzyme so to get rid of the H2O2. As a result, you get an increase in catalase enzyme. However, this would only works in vivo, not in vitro. Was this test being performed/simulated on live rats or a live organism?

We extracted the catalase from beef liver

Oh, so it wasn't done on a live organism :thi:


Your observations are pretty clear. Generally, I'm thinking the Tylenol acted as some sort of catalyst because any substance that increases the rate of reaction without itself being used up in the process is called a catalyst. I'm sure none of the Tylenol was used up. Were there any other variables (i.e. temperature) introduced in the experiment?

nope, just 3m of hydrogen peroxide, the catalase disks and 3m of Tylenol solution with a concentration of 1.6g/ml

Firstly, I moved this topic to the appropriate laboratory section. Secondly, I said that Tylenol would DECREASE the rate of reaction because it acts as a non-competitive inhibitor; therefore, your results don't correspond with literature.

Hepatic catalase activity in mice pretreated with CFB (500 mg/kg, i.p., for 10 days) was significantly inhibited by 3-AT (100 or 500 mg/kg, i.p.). In addition, the lower dose of 3-AT (100 mg/kg) had minimal effect on biliary and urinary excretion of APAP metabolites generated from a nontoxic dose, suggesting that APAP metabolism was not modulated by this dose of 3-AT.
From: Protection against acetaminophen hepatotoxicity by clofibrate pretreatment: role of catalase induction.

Acetaminophen treatment caused a significant. (P<0.01) decrease in the level of SOD, catalase, GPX and GST in liver tissue when compared with control...
From: Hepatoprotective and antioxidant  potential of Chloroxylon swietenia (Rutaceae) On Acetaminophen Induced toxicity in Male Albino Rats

The precise mechanism by which acetaminophen causes cell death remains unknown, although there are two prevailing theories that are controversial today. The first theory, the oxidative stress theory, maintains that acetaminophen metabolites cause oxidative stress in the cell ultimately leading to its demise. The second theory, the covalent binding theory, states that the binding of the highly reactive acetaminophen metabolites to cell macromolecules causes cell death. There is much evidence to substantiate both theories, and the question may be to what extent each plays a role in acetaminophen toxicity.

The only conclusion I can come up with is that your results wrong :-\ The only hypothesis I can think of is that H2O2 reacts with Tylenol to produce an intermediate substance that binds to catalase and acts as an activator, thereby increasing the rate of reaction - there is no proof of this, but it's an idea.

Did everyone else in your class get the same results?

i was the only one who used Tylenol 3; nontheless, i did 3 trials and i got similar results

Did you have a control?

Rule of thumb: Never complicate things in school experiments LOL

lol i know, others used alcohol and all these other things. Anyways, my control was catalase and the hydrogen peroxide, no conditions. Weird thing is that the reaction rate went slower than the tylenol 3 reaction rate

Well I mean technically if Tylenol made it go faster, then the control had to have gone slower. Here's what I'm going to propose and you may not like it - Fake your results. Simply write down that is decreased the rate of reaction and you have ample evidence from literature telling you that this should happen in real life. You're only a student, they don't expect you to come up with new findings :P You can take this route OR you could elaborate on the hypothesis I thought of earlier...:

The only hypothesis I can think of is that H2O2 reacts with Tylenol to produce an intermediate substance that binds to catalase and acts as an activator, thereby increasing the rate of reaction - there is no proof of this, but it's an idea.

and then write down that this is only a hypothesis and further studies are required to examine this phenomenon, LOL something like that ;) You could also talk about contamination, perhaps the tylenol reacted with the air or something.

Wait a second, how do you know for sure you extracted catalase ??? Maybe you extracted some other enzyme and so are testing totally different phenomenon :thi:

ahaha, well according to my teacher that what we did, we took a peice of the liver and added water then blended it

LMAO, I can't believe I just read that. There are over >1000 enzymes in the liver; oh dear.

loool, i figured it was wrong, because the process was too simple; we got the impression that catalase was abundant it the liver! Oh dear

Haha, I wonder what you're going to write in your introduction and discussion. I'm concerned for you now. I wonder if your teacher has any idea was catalase is.

thanks alot! really appreciate it!

Good luck.