Glutamate/glutamic acid degradation

Akhtar et al. [20] have studied the identification of photoproducts of fohc acid and their degradation pathways in aqueous solution using preparative TLC. An aqueous solution of folic acid irradiated with UV at pH 2.4 to 10.0 for 6 h was subjected to TLC analysis, which gave separation of fohc add (Rj 0.67), p-woi-nobenzolyl-L-glutamic acid (Figure 10.12). The photolyzed solutions were... 

Akagi T, Higashi M, Kaneko T et al (2005) In vitro enzymatic degradation of nanoparticles prepared from hydrophobically-modified poly (y-glutamic acid). Macromol Biosci 5 598-602... 

Plaquet et al. (PI) found in the urine of rachitic children peptides consisting of proline, hydroxyproline, and glycine, which they believed to be the products of collagen degradation. Two similar peptides containing considerable amounts of proline and hydroxyproline were isolated from the urine of a patient with rheumatoid arthritis by Mechanic et al. (Ml). One of these peptides consisted of three proline, two hydroxyproline, and nine glutamic acid residues, the second one consisted of four proline, four hydroxyproline, and one glutamic acid residues. The N-terminal amino acid in the first peptide was demonstrated to be hydroxyproline. 

Figure 8.6 The three dehydrogenase (oxidase) reactions in amino acid degradation. The enzymes are D-amino acid oxidase, glutamate dehydrogenase and proline oxidase (dehydrogenase). Biochemical details are given in Appendix 8.4.

Glutamic acid has recently been implicated as a likely cause of excitatory neural degradation in the CNS. It, as well as other endogenous and exogenous agents, stimulate what is known as the NMDA receptor and somehow cause destruction of nerve cells. 

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