Meeting Abstract
Vespa amino acid mixture (VAAM) is used as an exercise supplement by humans to increase athletic performance. The specific mechanism is not yet known but our previous work suggests VAAM affects the electron transport chain and ATP synthase activity. While increased exercise capacity shortly after VAAM exposure has been observed in multiple species, the relationship between VAAM and ATP production has been assumed without supporting data, until now. Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae , ATP production was measured with an ATP Titer Glo Assay under exposure to varying concentrations of VAAM (0%-0.3%) at different time intervals. Our data confirm that VAAM increases ATP production as VAAM concentration is increased (from 0% to 0.3% VAAM; p-value= 0.01). As time progressed over hours, cells were lost, most likely due to cell death, which resulted in lower ATP production, particularly in the high-concentration VAAM treatment group. Addition of antioxidant mixture had an effect on steps following electron transport. With this data, further experiments will be done to test the effect of VAAM on other organisms, also in combination with other chemical species to have a further understanding of the potentially harmful effects of VAAM.
