Possible Interaction: Alcohols and Glycerol

“The transport system could be specific for glycerol and some analogous compounds with hydroxyl groups, since glycerol uptake was inhibited by some alcohols and compounds related to glycerol, such as 1,2-propanediol and glycerol 3-phosphpate.”

“However, glycerol seems to negatively affect the antimicrobial efficacy of alcohols.”

“Furthermore, glycerol absorption was selectively inhibited by several alcohols , among which 1,3-propanediol caused the greatest inhibition, and also by glycerol-3-phosphate and voglibose, which are alcohol-related compounds analogous to glycerol.”

“For the monohydric alcohols used in this study (methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, n-butanol, iso-butanol and trifluoroethanol), B22 for lysozyme reaches a common plateau at approximately 5% (v/v) alcohol, while glycerol increases B22 more than monohydric alcohols.”

“It is calculated that alcohols affect both the long-range interactions between phospholipids and proteins in mitochondrial membranes (as detected by spin labels) and the order of phospholipid bilayers near the glycerol region (as detected by ANS).”

“These findings are consistent with the explanation that alcohols compete with glycerol (hence also with the glycerophosphate product) for a hydroxy binding site on the enzyme.”

“Indeed, the catalytic etherification of glycerol with lessactivated alcohols , such as aliphatic alcohols, is thermodynamically much more difficult.”