Wellness Partners D Ribose Crystals For Muscle Recovery/Heart Health

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Ribose and its Effect on Energy Recovery in Heart and Skeletal Muscle

by Terri L. Butler, Ph.D.
Bioenergy, Inc.

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Ribose Metabolism

Ribose is the substrate for formation of 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate (PRPP). PRPP is, in turn, used in de novo synthesis of nucleotides such as ATP, adenosine, and inosine (Figure 2).3, 12, 14, 24 PRPP is also an essential participant in the salvage pathways for ATP regeneration (Figure 3).3, 12, 14, 24

Nucleotides, including ATP, are essential energy sources for basic metabolic reactions and play important roles in protein, glycogen and nucleic acid synthesis (ribonucleotides and deoxyribonucleotides), cyclic nucleotide metabolism, and energy transfer reactions.

Figure 2. The role of ribose in de novo synthesis of ATP.

Figure 3. The role of 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate (PRPP) in the ATP salvage pathway.

Ribose plays a vital role in both myocardial and skeletal muscle metabolism, largely through its participation (as a precursor to PRPP) in the synthesis of ATP, adenine nucleotides, and nucleic acids. In these tissues the PPP is inefficient due to low availability of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase.13

Supplemental ribose administration allows the rate-limiting glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase step in the PPP to be bypassed, thereby directly elevating PRPP levels.14, 15, 18, 24, 25 Elevated PRPP levels are then available for increased adenine nucleotide biosynthesis which accelerates replenishment of depleted cardiac and skeletal muscle adenine nucleotide pools. This is the key to recovery of depleted ATP levels after ischemia or strenuous exercise.

The metabolic basis for the effectiveness of ribose is apparently not species specific because glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase is the rate limiting enzyme in the heart and skeletal muscle PPP for rats, dogs, and swine, as well as humans.14

Since this enzymatic reaction is the rate-limiting step in the PPP that limits the available PRPP pool and thus the adenine nucleotide levels, the enzymatic basis for the effectiveness of ribose, i.e., the formation of PRPP by bypassing the G-6-PDH reaction step, is the same for these different species.

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