bio

Cytochrome P450

The vast enzyme family that begins the processing of any foreign compound a body eats or inhales, by punching an oxygen atom into it. This is stage one of three in detoxification, and the paradox sits right here: oxidation does not reliably make things safer. Sometimes it makes them worse - paracetamol is harmless until a P450 converts a small fraction of it into a highly reactive intermediate. So stages one and two have to be matched; run oxidation without conjugation and the body poisons itself with its own detoxification system.