Plural: acetyls

ETYM Latin acetum vinegar + Greek hule substance. Related to -yl.
The group or radical of acetic acid.
The radical of acetic acid. acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin.

Plural: acetyl coenzyme As

A compound C25H38N7O17P3S formed as an intermediate in metabolism and active as a coenzyme in biological acetylations.

Plural: acetylations

The process of introducing an acetyl group into a compound

Plural: acetylcholines

A neurotransmitter that is a derivative of choline; released at the ends of nerve fibers in the somatic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
Chemical that serves as a neurotransmitter, communicating nerve impulses between the cells of the nervous system. It is largely associated with the transmission of impulses across the synapse (junction) between nerve and muscle cells, causing the muscles to contract.
ACh is produced in the synaptic knob (a swelling at the end of a nerve cell) and stored in vesicles until a nerve impulse triggers its discharge across the synapse. When the ACh reaches the membrane of the receiving cell it binds with a specific site and brings about depolarization—a reversal of the electric charge on either side of the membrane—causing a fresh impulse (in nerve cells) or a contraction (in muscle cells). Its action is shortlived because it is quickly destroyed by the enzyme cholinesterase.
Anticholinergic drugs have a number of uses in medicine to block the action of ACh, thereby disrupting the passage of nerve impulses and relaxing certain muscles, for example in premedication before surgery.
Postmortems on sufferers of Alzheimer's disease have shown a deficit of ACh. This has lead to the hypothesis 1993 that loss of ACh contributes to memory loss.

Plural: acetylcholinesterases

An enzyme that occurs especially in some nerve endings and in the blood and promotes the hydrolysis of acetylcholine.

Plural: acetylcysteines

Plural: acetylenes

Common name for ethyne.
A colorless flammable gas used chiefly in welding and in organic synthesis; SYN. ethyne.

Of or related to acetylene.