Phenylalanine essential amino acid

As constituents of proteins the amino-acids are important constituents of the food of animals. Certain amino-acids can be made in the body from ammonia and non-nitrogenous sources others can be made from other amino-acids, e.g. tyrosine from phenylalanine and cystine from methionine, but many are essential ingredients of the diet. The list of essential amino-acids depends partly on the species. See also peptides and proteins. 

One fflnino acid often serves as the biological precursor to another. L-Phenylala-nine is classified as an essential amino acid, whereas its p-hydroxy derivative, L-tyro-sine, is not. This is because animals can convert L-phenylalanine to L-tyrosine by hydrox-ylation of the aromatic ring. An arene oxide (Section 24.7) is an intennediate. 

Humans are able to synthesize only 11 of the 20 amino acids in proteins, called nonessential amino acids. The other 9, called essential amino acids, are biosynthesized only in plants and microorganisms and must be obtained in our diet. The division between essential and nonessential amino acids is not clearcut, however tyrosine, for instance, is sometimes considered nonessential because humans can produce it from phenylalanine, but phenylalanine itself is essential and must be obtained in the diet. Arginine can be synthesized by humans, but much of the arginine we need also comes from our diet. 

Biological examples of pericyclic reactions are relatively rare, although one much-studied example occurs during biosynthesis in bacteria of the essential amino acid phenylalanine. Phenylalanine arises from the precursor chorismate,... 

Cysteine, tyrosine, and hydroxylysine are formed from nutritionally essential amino acids. Serine provides the carbon skeleton and homocysteine the sulfur for cysteine biosynthesis. Phenylalanine hydroxylase converts phenylalanine to tyrosine. 

Two amino acids—cysteine and tyrosine—can be synthesized in the body, but only from essential amino acid ptecutsots (cysteine from methionine and tyrosine from phenylalanine). The dietary intakes of cysteine and tytosine thus affect the requirements for methionine and phenylalanine. The remaining 11 amino acids in proteins are considered to be nonessential or dispensable, since they can be synthesized as long as there is enough total protein in the diet—ie, if one of these amino acids is omitted from the diet, nitrogen balance can stiU be maintained. Howevet, only three amino acids—alanine, aspartate, and glutamate—can be considered to be truly dispensable they ate synthesized from common metabolic intetmediates (pyruvate, ox-... 

Like the glucose carrier, the carriers for large neutral amino acids, the so-called L-system - now designated LAT - are present at both sides of the endothelial cell membranes and transport at least 10 essential amino acids. The L-transporter at the BBB has a much higher transport capacity than those in other tissues. Its marked preference for phenylalanine analogs explains why the anticancer drugs melphalan and d,l-NAM-7 are transported by the L-system, as is the L-Dopa used to treat Parkinson s disease [42]. 

Consider one small molecule, phenylalanine. It is an essential amino acid in our diet and is important in protein synthesis (a component of protein), as well as a precursor to tyrosine and neurotransmitters. Phenylalanine is one of several amino acids that are measured in a variety of clinical methods, which include immunoassay, fluorometry, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC see Section 4.1.2) and most recently MS/MS (see Chapter 3). Historically, screening labs utilized immunoassays or fluorimetric analysis. Diagnostic metabolic labs used the amino acid analyzer, which was a form of HPLC. Most recently, the tandem mass spectrometer has been used extensively in screening labs to analyze amino acids or in diagnostic labs as a universal detector for GC and LC techniques. Why did MS/MS replace older technological systems The answer to this question lies in the power of mass spectrometer. 

Humans have a limited capacity to synthesize amino acids de novo, but extensive interconversions can occur. Those amino acids which cannot be formed within the body and must be supplied by the diet are called essential . Members of this group, which includes the branched chain amino acids leucine and valine, and also methionine and phenylalanine, are all dietary requirements. Such essential amino acids may be chemically converted, mainly in the liver, into the non-essential amino acids. The term non-essential does not equate with not biochemically important but simply means they are not strict dietary components. 

Infants with classic phenylketonuria (PKU) are normal at birth but if untreated show slow development, severe mental retardation, autistic symptoms, and loss of motor control. Children may have pale skin and white-blonde hair. The neurotoxic effects relate to high levels of phenylalanine and not to the phenylketones from which the name of the disease derives. Infants are routinely screened a few days after birth for blood phenylalanine level. Treatment consists of a life-long semisynthetic diet restricted in phenylalanine (smalt quantities are necessary because it is an essential amino acid). Aspartame (N-aspartyl-phenylalanine methyl ester), which is widely used as an artificial sweetener, must be strictly avoided by phenyiketonurics. 

Second, the essential amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine are precursors for several additional tomato flavor elements. Here, too, these flavor elements are important flavor constituents in other fruits, including strawberries and apples. They are also found in breads, cheeses, wine, and beer. 

Proteins are essential components of the diet, as they provide essential amino acids that the human body is not capable of producing on its own (see the table). Some amino acids, including cysteine and histidine, are not absolutely essential, but promote growth in children. Some amino acids are able to substitute for each other in the diet. For example, humans can form tyrosine, which is actually essential, by hydroxylation from phenylalanine, and cysteine from methionine. 

Because of their unique biological functions, a significant and growing part of new drug discovery and development is focused on this class of biomolecules. Their biological functions are determined by the exact arrangement, or sequence of different amino acids in their makeup. There are 20 naturally occurring amino acids, 8 of which are essential amino acids, namely, l-isoleucine, L-leucine, L-lysine, L-methionine, L-phenylalanine, L-valine, l-threonine, and L-tryptophan. 

Today aspartame is used in more than 6,000 food products. Aspartame is 160 times as sweet as sucrose based on mass equivalents. Approximately 16,000 tons are consumed annually on a global basis, with approximately 8,000 tons used in the United States and 2,500 tons in Europe. In the body aspartame is metabolized into its three components aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol (Figure 11.1). Aspartic acid is a nonessential amino acid and phenylalanine is an essential amino acid. The condition called phenylketonuria (PKU) is a genetic disorder that occurs when a person lacks the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase and cannot process phenylalanine. This results in high phenylalanine blood levels that are metabolized into products one of these is phenylpyruvate, which contains a ketone group and... 

Kirchgessner and Steinhart (52) studied the in vitro digestion of soy protein isolate with pepsin. They showed that a relatively higher percentage of the essential amino acids threonine, valine, isoleucine, leucine and phenylalanine were found in the undigested residue and therefore would be present in lower proportions in the hydrolysate. Myers et al. ( ) hydrolyzed a soy protein isolate with a fungal acid protease. They also found that the essential amino acid content of the hydrolyzate was lower than the isolate, but, as prepared by their continuous process, the hydrolyzate PER was not significantly reduced as compared to the isolate PER. 

Essential amino acids. f Derived from phenylalanine in mammals. 

Among the essential amino acids, the aromatic amino acids (phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan) form by a pathway in which chorismate occupies a key branch point. Phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate is a precursor of tryptophan and histidine. The pathway to histidine is interconnected with the purine synthetic pathway Tyrosine can also be formed by hydroxylation of phenylalanine (and thus is considered conditionally essential). The pathways for the other essential amino acids are complex. 

E. In the presence of adequate dietary sources of tyrosine, phenylalanine is not an essential amino acid. 

One of the earliest comparisons of thiophene to benzene in a biological system compared the vasoconstrictor activity of phenylethylamine (362 Ar = Ph) with that of 2-thienyIethyl-amine (362 Ar = 2-thienyl). It was shown to have vasopressor activity in the cat, but was only about one-tenth as potent. Phenylalanine is an essential amino acid for the growth of yeast, bacteria and mammals. It was found that /3-2-thienylalanine (363 Ar = 2-thienyl) was an antimetabolite of this essential amino acid, and numerous studies on the active L-form and simple peptides derived from it have been made. 

The limiting amino acid can be determined by taking the ratio of the amino acid present in the test protein and dividing it by the amount in the reference protein. The amino acid with the lowest ratio (test protein/reference) is the limiting amino acid. In this example, the single limiting amino acid is histidine (a dietary essential amino acid for young children). The lowest ratio is for the sum of phenylalanine and tyrosine. 

Phenylketonuria. Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a genetic condition whose sufferers have an inability to metabolise the essential amino acid L-phenylalanine. Then1 intake of this amino acid from any source (e.g. milk, vegetables, meat and aspartame) must be strictly controlled from birth to adulthood. It is for this reason that an aspartame-containing product requires the statement that it contains a source of phenylalanine on the pack. 

The synthesis of pressor amines in the body may convincingly be considered to begin with the essential amino acid, phenylalanine as illustrated in Table I. Gurin and Delluva (86) have reported that phenylalanine labeled with tritium, or containing C14 located both in the carboxyl group and in the position adjacent thereto, was converted in the rat to radioactive adrenaline. Only one C14 atom was present in the side chain and it was in the terminal group bearing the secondary amine (86). However the intermediate steps in the synthesis are by no means so certain, nor does this necessarily preclude other paths of synthesis. 

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