Miguel is a first year college student and works part-time as a fashion model. When he was in high school, he had time to eat healthy meals and exercise regularly. With his demanding college course load and work schedule, he no longer has time for exercise and often resorts to eating fast food. Miguel has steadily gained weight over the past 6 months and his agent tells him to go on a diet if he wants to continue modeling.
Miguel knows he cannot keep up his grades and take time to exercise to lose the weight. He hears about a pill from a modeling friend that is advertised as "natural, thermogenic, energy formula to increase mental focus." Not only would he lose weight, he would perform better in school! Miguel’s biology major friend tells him to be careful with the drug as he has heard scary stuff about the side effects. The drug is called DNP and it is a "mitochondrial uncoupler."
Miguel finds some primary literature about the effects of DNP. One study used myotube cell cultures, which are heavy users of ATP, and measured glucose oxidation levels (Fig. 1, developed from Gaster 2007). Some cells were exposed to DNP while others were grown without DNP (control).
Although DNP increases the rate of cellular respiration, it actually does not increase the concentration of ATP produced. (If you predicted this, it is a reasonable prediction) Thus, it facilitates weight loss by causing the cell to keep burning ever more glucose (and fat) while not producing any ATP for the cell to use as energy.
4. Use the information provided about how DNP works, and your answer to number 3 to explain how DNP functions as a weight loss drug in 3-4 sentences. 5 pts