Acyl CoA

Acyl-CoAs are essential for many physiological processes, like lipid synthesis, fatty acid oxidation, ketone body generation, xenobiotic metabolism, and signaling transduction. Generally speaking, acyl-CoAs like free CoA, acetyl-CoA, and malonyl-CoA assist in regulation of metabolic flux. For example, glycolysis and fatty acid oxidation are regulated by the ratio of acetyl-CoA to free CoA. Another example is that the elevation of malonyl-CoA will lead to the synthesis of fatty acids and thereby inhibiting fatty acid oxidation by preventing acyl-CoA going into the mitochondrion. What’s more, the deacylation and acylation caused by various acyl-CoAs, like acetyl-CoA, palmitoyl-CoA and succinyl-CoA, plays an essential role in the function regulation of many proteins and genes. Acting as allosteric regulators of several enzymes and proteins, acyl-CoAs have a central role in many basic pathways.