Glutamic acid occurrence

In patients with chronic hepatic B or C the respective prevalences of pancreatic autoantibodies increased from 2% and 3% at baseline to 5% and 7% after interferon (544). In all, 31 published cases of type 1 diabetes mellitus attributed to interferon alfa treatment were detailed, mostly in patients with hepatitis C. Irreversible diabetes required permanent insulin treatment in all but eight cases. At least one marker of pancreatic autoimmunity was positive in nine of 18 patients before treatment, and in 23 of 30 patients at the onset of diabetes. In accordance with these results and the likelihood of a genetic predisposition, the authors recommended screening for islet cell and glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibodies before and during interferon alfa treatment. However, owing to the low number of reported cases and the paucity of studies that have examined the relation between pancreatic autoimmunity and the occurrence of diabetes, further research on the predictive potential of such a systematic investigation is warranted. 

The exact mechanisms of tacrolimus-induced diabetes are unknown. In one renal transplant patient with genetic susceptibility, tacrolimus was associated with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and the simultaneous occurrence of anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody (1096). Within 2 months after conversion from tacrolimus to ciclosporin, the antibody was no longer detected and the patient s insulin requirements fell dramatically. Tacrolimus-induced direct beta cell toxicity, with... 

Trypsin cleaves adjacent to arginine and lysine, but has a preference for arginine, particularly at high pH values. In the sequences Arg-X or Lys-X, cleavage is inhibited if there is a proline residue at position X. Cleavage is also inhibited by glutamic acid and aspartic acid, and by the occurrence of additional arginine or lysine residues. 

In a similar manner the other amino acids react tyrosine, j3-p-hydroxy-phenyl-a-amino-butyric acid yielding p-hydroxy-phenyl-ethyl alcohol, tyrosol while phenyl-alanine, a-amino-j8-phenyl-propionic acid, yields phenyl-ethyl alcohol. Succinic acid, for example, which is of usual occurrence in fermented liquors is probably formed by a similar reaction from glutamic acid with the additional step of oxidation in the process. 

The occurrence of amino acids in the uridine nucleotides originally isolated by Park suggests that these compounds are involved in the activation or condensation of amino acids, but no enzymatic reactions of these compounds are known. A specific function in the formation of bacterial cell walls has been suggested following the finding of similar ratios of D-glutamic acid, D- and u-alanine, lysine, and amino sugar (1 3 1 1) in cell walls and a uridine nucleotide, both isolated from Staphylococcus aureus. ... 

The oxidation of L-aspartate (but not of the D-isomer) was accomplished by Nakada and Weinhouse" with washed homogenates of rat liver, upon the addition of either AMP or ATP. The interpretation of the authors is that the oxidation of L-aspartate is not due to a specific oxidase, but that it is caused by the transamination of the amino acid to oxal-acetate, which is subsequently oxidized through the operation of the citric acid cycle. The occurrence of aspartic-glutamic transaminase was demonstrated by assay and by the accumulation of glutamic acid. 

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