Mevalon

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A organic acid compound produced in the body as a key intermediate in the pathway that builds cholesterol and other isoprenoid molecules
2. A biochemical intermediate formed during the synthesis of cholesterol, sterols and related terpenoid compounds in living cells
3. The chemical substance made from acetyl units that serves as a building block in the cell pathway leading to cholesterol production

Etymology: Mevalonate is named after mevalonic acid, a compound first isolated in 1956 from the liver of cattle by chemists studying how the body makes cholesterol. The name was built from "mevalon", a shortened form of "mevalonic", which the researchers coined to describe the molecule. The term was later extended to the anion and salts of the acid, which is why the same name appears in chemistry texts and drug names. The word's own origin is modern and technical rather than classical. Its parts are not borrowed from an ancient language. Instead, the root was assembled by chemists from their own naming conventions, with the "-ate" ending marking a salt or ester of an acid, a pattern used for countless compounds since the nineteenth century.