The Metabolism of Histidine

Although the FIGLU test depends on folate nutritional status, the metabolism of histidine wUl also be impaired and a positive result obtained, in vitamin B12 deficiency, because of the secondary deficiency of folate (Section 10.3.4.1). About 60% of vitamin Bi2-deficient subjects show increased FIGLU excretion after a histidine load. 

Kang-Lee, Y, and Harper, A. E. (1977). Effect of histidine intake and hepatic histidase activity on the metabolism of histidine in vivo. J. Nutr. 107,1427-1443. 

The answer is c. (Murray, pp 347-358. Scriver, pp 3-45. Sack, pp 97-158. Wilson, pp 361-391.) Dopamine is produced from L-dopa, which in turn is made from tyrosine. Therapy with the L-dopa precursor increases dopamine concentrations and improves the rigidity and immobility that occur in Parkinson s disease. Dopamine is degraded in the synaptic cleft by monoamine oxidases A and B (MAO-A and MAO-B), producing 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetaldehyde (DOPAC). DOPAC is in turn broken down to homovanillic acid, which can be measured in spinal fluid to assess dopamine metabolism. Inhibitors of MAO-A and MAO-B have some use in treating Parkinson s disease. The metabolism of histidine or alanine is not related to that of dopamine, but phenylalanine is a precursor of tyrosine and L-dopa. 

Edlbacher and co-workers - concluded that urocanic acid formation represented a minor pathway in the metabolism of histidine. It was their contention that histidase directly caused the opening of the imidazole ring of histidine to yield the compound with the properties mentioned above. Indirect support for this claim was provided by the observation that urocanic acid, when administered to rabbits, was not easily metabolized, and upon injection into guinea pigs was excreted in the urine practically quantitatively. ... 

The reported isolation of racemic formyl-isoglutamine but of optically active L-glutamic acid as intermediate products of the metabolism of histidine is a serious discrepancy in the proposed pathway of metabohsm. The racemization of the formyl-isoglutamine may possibly occur during its isolation, and in nature it is formyl-L-isoglutamine which is present. 

The enzymic oxidation of imidazoleacetic acid to form imino-aspartic acid is one of the reactions which occurs during the metabolism of histidine (a subject recently reviewed by Tabor (730)). The portion of the metabolic sequence requiring imidazoleacetic acid oxidase is shown in Figure 24, in which work with several organisms is summarized (compare 328,331,389,730). 

Histamine is synthesised by decarboxylation of histidine, its amino-acid precursor, by the specific enzyme histidine decarboxylase, which like glutaminic acid decarboxylase requires pyridoxal phosphate as co-factor. Histidine is a poor substrate for the L-amino-acid decarboxylase responsible for DA and NA synthesis. The synthesis of histamine in the brain can be increased by the administration of histidine, so its decarboxylase is presumably not saturated normally, but it can be inhibited by a fluoromethylhistidine. No high-affinity neuronal uptake has been demonstrated for histamine although after initial metabolism by histamine A-methyl transferase to 3-methylhistamine, it is deaminated by intraneuronal MAOb to 3-methylimidazole acetic acid (Fig. 13.4). A Ca +-dependent KCl-induced release of histamine has been demonstrated by microdialysis in the rat hypothalamus (Russell et al. 1990) but its overflow in some areas, such as the striatum, is neither increased by KCl nor reduced by tetradotoxin and probably comes from mast cells. 

Histamine synthesis in the brain is controlled by the availability of L-histidine and the activity of histidine decarboxylase 254 Histamine is stored within and released from neurons but a neuronal transporter for histamine has not been found 254 In the vertebrate brain, histamine metabolism occurs predominately by methylation 254... 

Aminopterin and amethopterin are 4-amino analogues of folic acid (Fig. 11.5) and as such are potent inhibitors of the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (EC 1.5.1.3) (Blakley, 1969). This enzyme catalyses the reduction of folic acid and dihydrofolic acid to tetrahy-drofolic acid which is the level of reduction of the active coenzyme involved in many different aspects of single carbon transfer. As is clear from Fig. 11.6, tetrahydrofolate is involved in the metabolism of (a) the amino acids glycine and methionine (b) the carbon atoms at positions 2 and 8 of the purine ring (c) the methyl group of thymidine and (d) indirectly in the synthesis of choline and histidine. 

Although catabolism of histidine is not a major source of substituted folate, the reaction is of interest because it has been exploited as a means of assessing folate nutritional stams. In folate deficiency, the activity of the formimi-notransferase is impaired by lack of cofactor. After a loading dose of histidine, there is impaired oxidative metabolism of histidine and accumulation of FIGLU, which is excreted in the urine (Section 10.10.4). 

Experimental animals that have been exposed to ititrous oxide to deplete vitamin B12 show an increase in the proportion of liver folate present as methyl-tetrahydrofolate (85% rather than the normal 45%), largely at the expense of unsubstituted tetrahydrofolate and increased urinary loss of methyl-tetrahydrofolate (Horne et al., 1989). Tissue retention of folate is impaired because methyl-tetrahydrofolate is a poor substrate for polyglutamyl-folate synthetase, compared with unsubstituted tetrahydrofolate (Section 10.2.2.1). As a result of this, vitamin B12 deficiency is frequently accompanied by biochemical evidence of functional folate deficiency, including impaired metabolism of histidine (excretion of formiminoglutamate Section 10.3.1.2) and impaired thymidylate synthetase activity (as shown by abnormally low dUMP suppression Section 10.3.3.3), although plasma concentrations of methyl-tetrahydrofolate are normal or elevated. 

In experimental animals and with isolated tissue preparations and organ cultures, the test can be refined by measuring the production of G02 from [ C]histidine in the presence and absence of added methionine. If the impairment of histidine metabolism is the result of primary folate deficiency, the addition of methionine wUl have no effect. By contrast, if the problem is trapping of folate as methyl-tetrahydrofolate, the addition of methionine will restore normal histidine oxidation as a result of restoring the inhibition of methylene-tetrahydrofolate reductase by S-adenosylmethionine and restoring the activity of 10-formyl-tetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase, thus permitting more normal folate metabolism (Section 10.3.4.1). 

The histidine catabolic pathway is discussed under Folate in Chapter 9. The material reveals that histidine is catabolized to produce glutamate. Glutamate in turn, can be converted to a-ketoglutarate and completely oxidized to CO in the Krebs cycle. In the study depicted in Figure 8,26, the dietary histidine was spiked with I Cjhistidine, The term "spiked" means that only a very small proportion of the histidine contained carbon-14. The metabolic behavior of the radioactive histidine, which can be followed, mirrors the metabolic fate of nonradioactive histidine in the diet. All of the CQz exhaled by the rats can be easily collected, The " COj present in the rat s breath can be measured by use of a liquid scintillation counter. The amount of CO2 produced directly mirrors the proportion of histidine, absorbed from the diet that was degraded the rat s body. 

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