Fleacide Mystery Active Learning Excercise PDF

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BIOL 3800 Dr. Cruz

Fleacide Mystery!!

Part I. Read the following scenario: A 4 year old girl is brought into the Medical Examiner’s office. You read the following report from the hospital: At 10 am, the mother returns from the store to find the girl vomiting, not sleeping well, and lethargic. Mother puts the girl to bed. Ten minutes later, she noticed that the girl’s breathing became irregular and slow. She tried to wake her daughter but was unable to do so. The child became comatose. At noon, the girl was admitted to the hospital with not heartbeat or spontaneous breathing. A police report states the following: The parents discovered that the girl had given her dog a bath using Fleacide. According to the label on the container, Fleacide is an insecticide made of some plant materials and appropriate for external use on animals. Ingredients from label: PERMETHRIN N-OCTYL BICYCLOHEPTENE DICARBOXIMIDE COCONUT OIL METHOPRENE ROTENONE Answer the following questions: 1. What could have been in the flea dip that killed the girl? The ROTENONE killed her. 2. How could a product that is normally harmless to humans and pets have killed the girl? It could start with how young she was. Ingesting something as a full-grown adult is not the same as when you are a small child. She also might of ingested an extremely large dose of it that caused it to be fatal and was left untreated. If it got to her lungs through her nose or mouth, then t would have moved quickly=y throughout the rest of her body. 3. Also make a quick note of what you learned about any of these chemicals and questions you may have. Permethrin- functions as a neurotoxin, affecting neuron membranes Methoprene is essentially nontoxic to humans when ingested or inhaled If it was permethrin would it only be found out through her brain?

Part II. Autopsy report The girl died within two hours of first vomiting. Immediate cause of death was hypoxia (lack of oxygen). Tissue sections from the kidneys, lungs, thymus, and heart show massive cell death. Staining with cellular dyes indicates the mitochondria within the affected tissues were damaged.

Answer the following questions: 1. What function of the cell did the Fleacide effect? Aerobic respiration because of the damage to the mitochondria.

Part III. ATP analysis A more detailed analysis of the cells from the girl’s heart showed that ATP levels were reduced in the mitochondria. ATP levels in the cytoplasm of these cells however were normal. AcetylCoenzyme A levels were normal. Answer the following: 1. What cellular process(es) was impaired by the Fleacide? Since there was an absence of ATP from the mitochondria, either the TCA Cycle or ETC were impaired.

Part IV. Subcellular analysis

Answer the following: 1. Given this new information, what specific cellular process do you think was affected by the Fleacide? Why? Electron Transport Chain because there were low levels of NAD+ and extremely high levels of NADH. NADH is not releasing its H. 2. Some health food stores sell supplements containing NAD+. Would this have saved her? Why or why not? Most likely not because rotenone prevents electrons being transferred from NADH to the electron transport chain. Increasing NAD+ may increase NADH, but won’t restore the function of the ETC. NADH still cannot release those electrons to make ATPs the body needs. 3. Would artificial respiration or oxygenation have saved her? Why or why not? Exercise

More oxygen in the body also does not solve the functional problem in the electron transport chain. Oxygen does not make NADH release H, which is what is needed.

BIOL 3800 Dr. Cruz

Information of Incesticide Ingredients

Permethrin is a common synthetic chemical, widely used as an insecticide and acaricide and as an insect repellent. It belongs to the family of synthetic chemicals called pyrethroids and functions as a neurotoxin, affecting neuron membranes by prolonging sodium channel activation.

N-Octyl bicycloheptene dicarboximide is an ingredient in some common pesticides. It has no intrinsic pesticidal activity itself, but rather is a synergist enhancing the potency of pyrethroid ingredients. It is used in a variety of household and veterinary products.

Coconut oil, also known as coconut butter, is a tropical oil with many applications. It is extracted from copra (the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut). Coconut oil constitutes seven percent of the total export income of the Philippines, the world's largest exporter of the product.

Methoprene is a juvenile hormone (JH) analog which can be used as an insecticide that acts as a growth regulator. Methoprene is essentially nontoxic to humans when ingested or inhaled. It is used in drinking water cisterns to control mosquitoes which spread malaria.[2]

Rotenone works by interfering with the electron transport chain in mitochondria. Specifically, it inhibits the transfer of electrons from iron-sulfur centers in complex I to ubiquinone. This prevents NADH from being converted into usable cellular energy (ATP)....