Folic acid chemistry

A. Cheung, L. Pont, and P. Lim, Applications of high speed liquid chromatography to some folic acid analogs. In Nucleic Acid Chemistry Improved and New Synthetic Procedures, Methods and Techniques, Part Two, (eds. 

The chemistry, metabolism, and clinical importance of folic acid have been the subject of many excellent reviews (A7, Gil, H14, H20, Rl). Folic acid deficiency leads to a macrocytic anemia and leucopenia. These symptoms are due to inadequate synthesis of nucleic acid. The synthesis of purine bases and of thymine, required for nucleic acid synthesis, is impaired in folic acid deficiency. Detection of folic acid activity in biologic fluids and tissues is of the utmost importance it distinguishes between the various anemias, e.g., those due to vitamin Bi2 or folic acid deficiency. Because morphology of the abnormal red cell does not help in diagnosing vitamin deficiency, one must rely on assay methods for differential diagnosis. Treatment of pernicious anemia with folic acid has led to subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord despite... 

Compared with other vitamins, the chemical structures of both folic acid and B12 are complex. They are prosthetic groups for the enzymes that catalyse the transfer of the methyl group (-CH3) between compounds (one-carbon metabolism). The -CH3 group is chemically unreactive, so that the chemistry for the transfers is difficult, requiring complex structures for catalysis. 

Coward, J. K. McGuire, J.J. Galivan, J. in Chemistry and Biology of Pteridines 1989. Pteridines and Folic Acid Derivatives. Proceedings of the Ninth International Symposium on Pteridines and Folic Acid Derivatives. Chemical, Biological and Clinical Aspects, Zurich, Switzerland, Sept 3-8, 1989 Curtius, H.-C. Ghisla, S. Blau, N Eds. dc Gruyter Berlin, 1990 pp 1198 1202. 

The use of ELISA is broad and it finds applications in many biological laboratories over the last 30 years many tests have been developed and vahdated in different domains such as clinical diagnostics, pharmaceutical research, industrial control or food and feed analytics for instance. Our work has been to redesign the standard ELISA test to fit in a microfluidic system with disposable electrochemical chips. Many applications are foreseen since the biochemical reagents are directly amenable from a conventional microtitre plate to our microfluidic system. For instance, in the last 5 years, we have reported previous works with this concept of microchannel ELISA for the detection of thromboembolic event marker (D-Dimer) [4], hormones (TSH) [18], or vitamin (folic acid) [24], It is expected that similar technical developments in the future may broaden the use of electroanalytical chemistry in the field of clinical tests as has been the case for glucose monitoring. This work also contributes to the novel analytical trend to reduce the volume and time consumption in analytical labs using lab-on-a-chip devices. Not only can an electrophoretic-driven system benefit from the miniaturisation but also affinity assays and in particularly immunoassays with electrochemical detection. 

Nutritionally, the most important water-soluble vitamins in citrus fruits are ascorbic acid, folic acid and pyridoxine. Clinical studies on the bioavailability of these vitamins, as well as basic research on the absorption and chemistry of these vitamins, have yielded valuable information adding to our overall understanding of the nutritional quality and bioavailability of these vitamins found in citrus fruits. 

G. C.K. Roberts, in Chemistry and Biology of Pteridines Pteridines and Folic Acid Derivatives, ed. J.A. Blair (Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1983) p. 197. 

Some hetcrocycles are simple, some very complex, but we cannot live without them. We shall end this chapter with a wonderful story of heterocyclic chemistry at work. Folic acid is much in the news today as a vitamin that is particularly important for pregnant mothers, but that is involved in the metabolism of all living things. Folic acid is built up in nature from three pieces a heterocyclic starting material (red), p-aminobcnzoic acid (black) and the amino acid glutamic acid (green). Here you see the precursor, dihydrofolic acid. 

The F factor (folic acid). Education in Chemistry, Info Chem, January 2003, 79, 1. 

Ross, T. L., Mindt, T. L., Baumann, S., et al. (2007) Radiosynthesis of 18F-labelled folic acid derivatives using a direct method and click chemistry. J Labeled Comp. Radiopharm., 50, S35. 

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