QUESTION: Milrinone is a commonly used small molecule that has been show to inhibit a liverisoform of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase. The use of this molecule in cellularculture has been shown to increase hepatocyte glucose production (among other things).Given this information answer the following questions: a. What does the phosphodiesterase do in a typical hepatocyte (2 points)? b. Explain how it’s (the phosphodiester) inhibition will alter glucagon signaling (2 points)? c. Will Milrinone use increase or decrease F26BP levels in the cell (1 points)? Why(2 points)? d. Finally explain how Milrinone leads to increased glucose output (2 points). *This is a question related to the Metabolism biochemistry. Solution a) cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases degrade the phosphodiester bond in secondary messenger molecules such as cAMP and cGMP. cAMP causes activation of protein kinase A which stimulates gluconeogenesis resulting in glucose from glycogen. glucagon stimulates the production of cAMP from ATP by adenylyl cyclase, which causes activation of protein kinase A. Four molecules of cAMP are required to activate PKA as PKA consists of 2 catalytic and 2 regulatory subunits. The regulatory subunits bind to 2 cAMP molecules and bring a conformational change which allows them to move apart from the catalytic subunits making them free to phosphorylate proteins. This reaction is regulated by feedback mechanism using phosphodiesterase. whenever cAMP levels are high, they are converted to AMP reducing the PKA activity. b) if PDE is inhibited by milrinone, glucagon signalling gets altered with increased PKA activity as the feedback regulation by PDE is inhibited, therefore protein kinase A activity will be high. PKA activates phosphorylase kinase which phosphorylates glycogen phosphorylase b to form glycogen phosphorylase a which helps in the breakdown of glycogen to glu-1P. it phosphorylates PFK2 domain and inactivates it thereby activating FBPase2 which is a bifunctional enzyme. Phosphorylation at serine position activates the Fructose2,6bisphosphatse converting F26BP to fru-6-P, the primary step in glycolysis, thereby slowing the glycolysis and dominating the gluconeogenesis. c) as milrinone use increases cAMP levels, there will be a decrease in F26BP in the cell as FBPase gets activated by PKA thereby inhibiting glycolysis. d) there is an increase in the breakdown pathways such as glycogenolysis, gluconeogenesis and pathways such as glycolysis and glycogenesis are inhibited by protein kinase A by a glucagon epinephrine mechanisms. the feedback mechanisms are lost by the use of milrinone so there is more glucose output..