Pathological Biochemistry - GAF232
Title: Pathological Biochemistry
Guaranteed by: Department of Biochemical Sciences (16-16160)
Faculty: Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové
Actual: from 2023 to 2025
Semester: summer
Points: 0
E-Credits: 3
Examination process: summer s.:oral
Hours per week, examination: summer s.:28/0, Ex [HS]
Capacity: unlimited / unknown (unknown)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
Key competences:  
State of the course: taught
Language: English
Teaching methods: full-time
Level:  
Explanation: (F 3.r.)
Note: deregister from the exam date if a requisite was not fulfilled
enabled for web enrollment
Guarantor: doc. PharmDr. Iva Boušová, Ph.D.
Comes under: 2.ročník 2025/26 Pharmacy (EN19)
Co-requisite : GAF141
Is pre-requisite for: GAF339
Annotation -
Pathological biochemistry (pathobiochemistry) deals with disorders of biochemical pathways and biochemical changes in human organism under pathological situations. The discipline aims to explain diseases at the molecular level. Some aspects of human physiological biochemistry (e.g. the biochemistry of digestion and absorption, synthesis and degradation of hemoglobin, and metabolism of lipoproteins), are also discussed in the course. The major goal of Pathobiochemistry in the Pharmacy program is to prepare students for future understanding molecular targetting of modern pharmacotherapeutics, taught in Pharmacology. This subject also contributes to the deepening of the medical education of the pharmacist. Topics: Oxidative stres and antioxidant defense, biochemistry of inflammation, biochemistry of tumors, inherited errors of metabolism, physiological and pathological biochemistry of lipids, physiological and pathological biochemistry of saccharides, physiological and pathological biochemistry of nitrogen-containing compounds, pathological biochemistry of nervous systém, physiological and pathological biochemistry of purines and pyrimidines, biochemistry of porphyrines, pathological biochemistry of hormonal regulations
Last update: Boušová Iva, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (02.09.2025)
Course completion requirements

1) Passing the exam of General biochemistry shall be the condition for registration for the exam

2) Combined exam - written and oral part. Conditions are published in the Study materials on the faculty website

3) Registration for an examination shall be done electronically through Internet in the Student Information System (SIS). The student may not be registered for more terms of the same exam concurrently.

5) Teachers might ask additional questions from different areas of Pathological Biochemistry

6) All drawn and asked questions are equal with respect to validity of exam and exam results (exam mark)

7) The student may take the examination from the registered subject a maximum of three times, i.e. he/she has the right to two corrective dates; an extraordinary corrective date is not allowed.

Last update: Boušová Iva, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (02.09.2025)
Literature -

Obligatory:

  • Newsholme, E. A., Leech, A. R.. Biochemistry for the medical sciences - metabolic regulation in health and disease. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, 543 s. ISBN 978-0-471-98820-5.

  • Murray, Robert K. Granner, Daryl K., Rodwell, Victor W.. Harper's illustrated biochemistry. New York: Lange Medical Books/McGraw-Hill, 2006, 692 s. ISBN 978-0-07-125300-0.

  • Champe, Pamela C., Harvey, Richard A. Ferrier, Denise R.. Lippincott's illustrated reviews: Biochemistry. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008, 520 s. ISBN 978-0-7817-6960-0.

  • Silbernagl, Stefan, Lang, Florian. Color atlas of pathophysiology. null: null, 2010, 433 s. ISBN 978-3-13-116552-7.

Recommended:

  • Halliwell, Barry Gutteridge, John M. C.. Free radicals in biology and medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, 905 s. ISBN 978-0-19-871748-5.

  • Litwack, Gerald. Human biochemistry and disease. Burlington: Elsevier Inc., Academic Press, 2008, 1254 s. ISBN 978-0-12-452815-4.

Last update: Boušová Iva, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (20.01.2025)
Teaching methods -

Lectures

Last update: Boušová Iva, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (02.09.2025)
Requirements to the exam -

Exam in Pathological Biochemistry shall be taken after completing the course of General Biochemistry.

Last update: Boušová Iva, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (02.09.2025)
Syllabus -

Introduction, mechanism of cell injury

  • General mechanisms leading to cell damage or death
  • Major biochemical mechanisms of cellular damage
  • Course of biochemical and morphological changes in acute ischemic/hypoxic damage
  • Chemical injury

Oxidation stress, radical diseases

  • Free radicals, reactive forms of nitrogen and oxygen (RONS)
  • Formation of free radicals and RONS
  • Physiological functions of RONS
  • Antioxidant system of the organism
  • Disruption of antioxidant protection, oxidative stress
  • RONS in pathological processes

Biochemistry of inflammation

  • Phases of inflammatory response, local signs of inflammation, course of acute inflammatory response
  • MMediators of inflammation - biogenic amines, kinins, lipid mediators, complement, cytokines, exogenous mediators
  • Phagocytosis - mechanisms of intracellular killing
  • Systemic effects of inflammation - acute phase reaction, acute phase reactants, fever, leukocytosis, hormonal changes, cachexia, pain
  • Pharmacotherapeutic interventions in the metabolism of inflammatory mediators

Biochemistry of tumors

  • Tumor diseases - introduction, classification
  • Tumorigenic transformation, metastasis, angiogenesis
  • Apoptosis
  • Factors inducing tumorigenic transformation - physical, chemical and biological factors in carcinogenesis
  • Viral tumors. Viral and cellular oncogenes, growth factors, telomeres and telomerases
  • Laboratory diagnostics of tumors

Hereditary metabolic disorders

  • Characteristics, pathogenesis and consequences, inheritance
  • Clinical manifestations, treatment
  • Diagnosis of hereditary metabolic disorders - non-selective and selective screening

Physiological and pathological biochemistry of lipids

  • Digestion and absorption from GIT, disorders
  • Lipoproteins, structure, metabolism
  • Dyslipoproteinaemias
  • Biochemistry of atherosclerosis
  • Lipidoses

Physiological and pathological biochemistry of carbohydrates

  • Digestion and absorptionof saccharides, disorders
  • Disorders of main metabolic pathways of carbohydrates - disorders of fructose and galactose metabolism, glycogenoses
  • Complex carbohydrates - disorders of glycosylation, mucopolysaccharidoses
  • Regulation of blood glucose and its disorders
  • Diabetes mellitus as a complex metabolic disorder - biochemistry of acute diabetes, molecular basis of late consequences of diabetes
  • Metabolic syndrome

Physiological and pathological biochemistry of proteins and amino acids

  • Proteins, peptides, non-protein nitrogen-containing compounds
  • Digestion of proteins in GIT, absorption of amino acids from GIT, disorders. Intracellular protein degradation, disorders.
  • Formation and metabolism of ammonia - biochemical basis of disorders of ornithine cycle, hepatogenic encephalopathy
  • Inborn errors of amino acids metabolism - phenylketonuria, leucinosis, errors of sulfur-containing amino acids

Pathological biochemistry of nervous system

  • Protein misfolding, consequences
  • Neurodegenerative diseases - Alzheimer's dementia, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, prion disorders

Nucleic acids, metabolism of purines and pyrimidines

  • Regulation of purine metabolism, hyperuricaemia, gout
  • Regulation of pyrimidine metabolism, orotaciduria

Physiological and pathological biochemistry of porphyrines

  • Synthesis and metabolism of porphyrines, regulation and disorders
  • Porphyrias, hemoglobinopathies
  • Jaundice (icterus)

Pathological biochemistry of hormones

  • General aspects of hormonal signalization
  • Endocrine disorders - hypofunction, hyperfunction
  • Disorders of adrenal steroid hormones synthesisand secretion, disorders of thyroid hormones secretion
Last update: Boušová Iva, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (02.09.2025)
Learning outcomes

   

The subject Pathological Biochemistry builds on the knowledge and skills acquired in the subjects: General Biochemistry, Human Morphology and Physiology, and Immunology.

After completing the course, the student will be able to use the following terms (including their commonly used abbreviations) in the correct context towards biochemical characteristics and pathobiochemical changes in selected diseases: oxidative stress, reactive oxygen species, antioxidant, inflammation, mediator of inflammation, carcinogenesis, (pro)carcinogen, (proto)oncogene, antioncogene, lipoprotein, dyslipoproteinemia, lipidosis, steatosis and steatohepatitis, GLUT, SGLT, glucokinase, glycogenosis, mucopolysaccharidosis, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, non-enzymatic glycation, glycated hemoglobin, macrophage scavenger receptors, atherosclerosis, abdominal obesity, adipokine, β-amyloid, α-synuclein, parkin, huntingtin, prion protein, ubiquitin, proteasome, hyperammonemia, phenylketonuria, newborn screening, inherited metabolic disorders, photosensitivity, icterus, hemoglobinopathy, hyperuricemia, endocrinopathy.

Learning Outcomes:

Students based on the knowledge and skills acquired:

Ø  define the importance of pathological biochemistry as a discipline;

Ø  orient themselves to the biochemical pathways associated with selected metabolic disorders;

Ø  explain how changes at the molecular or cellular level contribute to disease development and progression;

Ø  explain the role of genetic changes in biochemical pathways and their impact on pathological conditions;

Ø  describe biochemical changes in civilization diseases (e.g., diabetes mellitus, obesity, dyslipoproteinemia, or cancer);

Ø  explain how changes in enzyme (and/or transporter) activity affect metabolite levels in the body and demonstrate these changes in an example;

Ø  identify key biochemical markers used in laboratory diagnostics and monitoring of disease progression and treatment;

Ø  interpret the results of basic biochemical laboratory tests (e.g., liver function tests, blood glucose levels, blood lipid, and lipoprotein levels) and compare them to disease states;

Ø  describe the biochemical basis for rational drug therapy of disease.

 

Last update: Boušová Iva, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (02.09.2025)