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Relationship: 882

Title

A descriptive phrase which clearly defines the two KEs being considered and the sequential relationship between them (i.e., which is upstream, and which is downstream). More help

Decreased, Mitochondrial Fatty Acid Beta Oxidation leads to Decreased, Ketogenesis (production of ketone bodies)

Upstream event

The causing Key Event (KE) in a Key Event Relationship (KER). More help

Decreased, Mitochondrial Fatty Acid Beta Oxidation

Downstream event

The responding Key Event (KE) in a Key Event Relationship (KER). More help

Decreased, Ketogenesis (production of ketone bodies)

Key Event Relationship Overview

The utility of AOPs for regulatory application is defined, to a large extent, by the confidence and precision with which they facilitate extrapolation of data measured at low levels of biological organisation to predicted outcomes at higher levels of organisation and the extent to which they can link biological effect measurements to their specific causes.Within the AOP framework, the predictive relationships that facilitate extrapolation are represented by the KERs. Consequently, the overall WoE for an AOP is a reflection in part, of the level of confidence in the underlying series of KERs it encompasses. Therefore, describing the KERs in an AOP involves assembling and organising the types of information and evidence that defines the scientific basis for inferring the probable change in, or state of, a downstream KE from the known or measured state of an upstream KE. More help

AOPs Referencing Relationship

Taxonomic Applicability

Latin or common names of a species or broader taxonomic grouping (e.g., class, order, family) that help to define the biological applicability domain of the KER.In general, this will be dictated by the more restrictive of the two KEs being linked together by the KER. More help

Term	Scientific Term	Evidence	Link
human	Homo sapiens	High	NCBI
rat	Rattus norvegicus	High	NCBI

Sex Applicability

An indication of the the relevant sex for this KER. More help

Sex	Evidence
Male	High
Female	High

Life Stage Applicability

An indication of the the relevant life stage(s) for this KER. More help

Term	Evidence
Adults	Moderate

Key Event Relationship Description

Provides a concise overview of the information given below as well as addressing details that aren’t inherent in the description of the KEs themselves. More help

The KE, “mitochondrial fatty acid beta oxidation” catabolizes short, medium and long chain fatty acids (<C20) into acetyl-CoA and ATP. The production of acetyl-CoA monomers is important as they serve as fundamental units for metabolic energy production (ATP) via the citric acid cycle followed by electron-transport chain mediated oxidative phosphorylation (Nelson and Cox, 2000A). Acetyl-CoA is also a fundamental units of energy storage via gluconeogenesis (Nelson and Cox, 2000B) and lipogenesis (Nelson and Cox, 2000C). The liver plays a key role in processing the fundamental energy substrate, acetyl-CoA, into metabolic currencies that contribute to the systemic cellular energy needs of the whole organism. The liver represents a key organ involved in systemic energy distribution given its ability to synthesize glucose (an ability shared only with the kidney, Gerich et al 2001) as well as its exclusive role in the generation of ketone bodies (Cahill 2006, Sengupta et al 2010, Kersten 2014). This is especially important for the metabolic energy needs of the brain which can only use glucose and the ketone body, β-hydroxybutyrate for cellular energy production (Cahill 2006, Owen 2005, Kersten 2014). Therefore, the KE, “ketogenesis (production of ketone bodies)” is critical to supporting general systemic energy homeostasis in fasting events (Cahill 2006, Evans et al 2004, Sengupta et al 2010).

Evidence Collection Strategy

Include a description of the approach for identification and assembly of the evidence base for the KER. For evidence identification, include, for example, a description of the sources and dates of information consulted including expert knowledge, databases searched and associated search terms/strings. Include also a description of study screening criteria and methodology, study quality assessment considerations, the data extraction strategy and links to any repositories/databases of relevant references.Tabular summaries and links to relevant supporting documentation are encouraged, wherever possible. More help

Evidence Supporting this KER

Addresses the scientific evidence supporting KERs in an AOP setting the stage for overall assessment of the AOP. More help

The KER scores for weight of evidence for the KE, “mitochondrial fatty acid beta oxidation” -> the KE, “ketogenesis (production of ketone bodies)” was considered “strong” given that the former serves as a primary source of substrate for the latter (Badman et al. 2007, Potthoff et al. 2009). Interference with ketogenesis, for example by PPARα inhibition, has been demonstrated to inhibit β-hydroxybutyrate production (measured in serum) during fasting events in mice (Badman et al 2007, Potthoff 2009, Sengupta et al 2010). The quantitative understanding score for this KER was considered “moderate” given that weight of evidence for the individual KEs was robust and the results in a study by Badman et al (2007) indicating that metabolism of fatty acid substrates (measured as liver triglycerides) that would otherwise contribute to β-hydroxybutyrate production was additionally inhibited under PPARα knockout.

Biological Plausibility

Addresses the biological rationale for a connection between KEupstream and KEdownstream. This field can also incorporate additional mechanistic details that help inform the relationship between KEs, this is useful when it is not practical/pragmatic to represent these details as separate KEs due to the difficulty or relative infrequency with which it is likely to be measured. More help

Biological plausibility of this KER is strong given the supporting relationships cited in the literature described in the previous bullets above.

Empirical Evidence

Provides specific (citable) evidence that supports the idea of a change in the upstream KE (KEupstream) leading to, or being associated with, a subsequent change in the downstream KE (KEdownstream), assuming the perturbation of KEupstream is sufficient. More help

Include consideration of temporal concordance here

As described in the previous sections, there is a fundamental linkage between KEs given that the KE, “mitochondrial fatty acid beta oxidation” produces raw materials that are used in the KE, “ketogenesis (production of ketone bodies)”. It is less clear how essential the former is to a sustainable throughput of the latter especially given that the latter can utilize substrates that can be produced by various other cellular energy processing pathways in addition to mitochondrial fatty acid beta oxidation.

Uncertainties and Inconsistencies

Addresses inconsistencies or uncertainties in the relationship including the identification of experimental details that may explain apparent deviations from the expected patterns of concordance. More help

Additional investigations tracing substrate processing, specifically from sources resulting from the KE, “mitochondrial fatty acid beta oxidation” under control as well as starvation conditions would supplement current understanding of the connections between the KE, “mitochondrial fatty acid beta oxidation” and the KE, “ketogenesis (production of ketone bodies)”.

Known modulating factors

This table captures specific information on the MF, its properties, how it affects the KER and respective references.1.) What is the modulating factor? Name the factor for which solid evidence exists that it influences this KER. Examples: age, sex, genotype, diet 2.) Details of this modulating factor. Specify which features of this MF are relevant for this KER. Examples: a specific age range or a specific biological age (defined by...); a specific gene mutation or variant, a specific nutrient (deficit or surplus); a sex-specific homone; a certain threshold value (e.g. serum levels of a chemical above...) 3.) Description of how this modulating factor affects this KER. Describe the provable modification of the KER (also quantitatively, if known). Examples: increase or decrease of the magnitude of effect (by a factor of...); change of the time-course of the effect (onset delay by...); alteration of the probability of the effect; increase or decrease of the sensitivity of the downstream effect (by a factor of...) 4.) Provision of supporting scientific evidence for an effect of this MF on this KER. Give a list of references. More help

Quantitative Understanding of the Linkage

Captures information that helps to define how much change in the upstream KE, and/or for how long, is needed to elicit a detectable and defined change in the downstream KE. More help

Is it known how much change in the first event is needed to impact the second? Are there known modulators of the response-response relationships? Are there models or extrapolation approaches that help describe those relationships?

As discussed in the previous sections, the degree to which the, KE “mitochondrial fatty acid beta oxidation” affects the KE, “ketogenesis (production of ketone bodies)” is not well described, neither are modulators of the response-response relationships. Certainly, the pathways are interrelated and connected by PPARalpha as the master regulator of each process, so additional modulators related to resource availability and cellular signaling require exploration. We are not currently aware of any models available to extrapolate results among KEs.

Response-response Relationship

Provides sources of data that define the response-response relationships between the KEs. More help

Time-scale

Information regarding the approximate time-scale of the changes in KEdownstream relative to changes in KEupstream (i.e., do effects on KEdownstream lag those on KEupstream by seconds, minutes, hours, or days?). More help

Known Feedforward/Feedback loops influencing this KER

Define whether there are known positive or negative feedback mechanisms involved and what is understood about their time-course and homeostatic limits. More help

Domain of Applicability

A free-text section of the KER description that the developers can use to explain their rationale for the taxonomic, life stage, or sex applicability structured terms. More help

The relationships described herein have been primarily established in human and rodent models.

References

List of the literature that was cited for this KER description. More help

Badman MK, Pissios P, Kennedy AR, Koukos G, Flier JS, Maratos-Flier E: Hepatic fibroblast growth factor 21 is regulated by PPARalpha and is a key mediator of hepatic lipid metabolism in ketotic states. Cell metabolism 2007, 5(6):426-437.

Cahill GF, Jr. Fuel metabolism in starvation. Annu Rev Nutr 2006, 26:1-22.

Evans RM, Barish GD, Wang YX: PPARs and the complex journey to obesity. Nat Med 2004, 10(4):355-361.

Gerich JE, Meyer C, Woerle HJ, Stumvoll M: Renal gluconeogenesis: its importance in human glucose homeostasis. Diabetes Care 2001, 24(2):382-391.

Kersten S. 2014. Integrated physiology and systems biology of PPARalpha. Molecular Metabolism 2014, 3(4):354-371.

Nelson DL, Cox MM 2000A. The Citric Acid Cycle. Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry. 3rd Edition. Worth Publishers. New York, NY. p567-592.

Nelson DL, Cox MM 2000B. Carbohydrate Biosynthesis. Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry. 3rd Edition. Worth Publishers. New York, NY. p722-764.

Nelson DL, Cox MM 2000C. Lipid Biosynthesis. Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry. 3rd Edition. Worth Publishers. New York, NY. p770-814.

Owen OE: Ketone bodies as a fuel for the brain during starvation. Biochem Mol Biol Educ 2005, 33(4):246-251.

Potthoff MJ, Inagaki T, Satapati S, Ding X, He T, Goetz R, Mohammadi M, Finck BN, Mangelsdorf DJ, Kliewer SA et al: FGF21 induces PGC-1α and regulates carbohydrate and fatty acid metabolism during the adaptive starvation response. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2009, 106(26):10853-10858.

Sengupta S, Peterson TR, Laplante M, Oh S, Sabatini DM: mTORC1 controls fasting-induced ketogenesis and its modulation by ageing. Nature 2010, 468(7327):1100-1104.