Tryptophan Quinolinic acid

In addition to the glutamate and glycine sites on the NMDA receptor, there also exist polyamine sites which are activated by the naturally occurring polyamines spermine and spermidine. Specific divalent cation sites are also associated with the NMDA receptor, namely the voltage-dependent magnesium site and the inhibitory zinc site. In addition to the excitatory amino acids, the natural metabolite of brain tryptophan, quinolinic acid, can also act as an agonist of the NMDA receptor and may contribute to nerve cell death at high concentrations. 

The biosynthesis and metabolism of nicotinic acid in disease has received little attention metabolic studies deal mainly with normal animals and man (01, R5). After a tryptophan load dose, the main catabolites in the urine are nicotinuric acid, N1-methylnicotinamide, nicotinamide, quinolinic acid, kynurenine, 6-pyridone, anthranilic acid, and 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid. These excretory products were estimated... 

Alkaloids derived from nicotinic acid contain a pyridine nucleus. Nicotinic acid itself is synthesized from L-tryptophan via A-formylkynurenine, L-kynurenine, 3-hydroxykynurenine, 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid and quinolinic acid. 

L-tryptophane is the precursor of serotonin and other biological substances like tryptamine, kynure-nine and quinolinic acid. Furthermore, it is an essential substrate in the protein synthesis. The dietary intake of L-tryptophane might increase the production of serotonin. For this reason the aminoacid is used for the therapy of light sleeping disorders. 

Neurotoxins produced by the body. Some normal body constituents are neurotoxic in excess. These incluse quinolinic acid (Fig. 25-11),889 3-hydroxykynurenine (Fig. 25-11 p. 1444),890 and homocysteine.891 Elevated levels of homocysteine are also associated with vascular disease and stroke (Chapter 24). 3-Hydroxykynurenine is a precursor to ommochrome pigments of insects and an intermediate in conversion of tryptophan into the nicotinamide ring of NAD in humans (Fig. 25-11). 6-Hydroxydopamine (Fig. 30-26), which may be formed in the body, is severely toxic to catecholaminergic neurons.892... 

Precursors in the biosynthesis of niacin In animals and bacteria, tryptophan and in plants, glycerol and succinic acid. Intermediates in the synthesis include kynurenine, hydroxyanthranilic acid, and quinolinic acid. In animals, the niacin storage sites are liver, heart, and muscle. Niacin supplements are prepared commercially by (1) Hydrolysis of 3-cyanopyndine or (2) oxidation of nicotine, quinoltne, or collidine. 

Another possibility is that endogenous epileptogenic compounds may be produced in the brain of the epileptic patient. Both tetrahydroisoquinolines and beta-carbolines have been detected in the human brain, as has the tryptophan analogue quinolinic acid, which all have convulsant and excitotoxic properties. The enzymes that synthesize quinolinic acid have also been identified in human brain tissue. 

As shown in Figure 8.2, NAD(P) can be synthesized from the tryptophan metaboUte quinolinic acid. The oxidative pathway of tryptophan metabolism is shown in Figure 8.4. Under normal conditions, almost aU of the dietary intake of tryptophan, apart from the small amount that is used for net new protein synthesis, is metabolized by this pathway, and hence is potentially available for NAD synthesis. About 1% of tryptophan metabolism is by way of 5-hydroxylation and decarboxylation to 5-hydroxytryptarnine (serotonin), which is excreted mainly as 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid. 

Figure 8.4. Pathways of tryptophan metaholism. Tryptophan dioxygenase, EC 1.13.11.11 formylkynurenine formamidase, EC 3.5.1.9 kynurenine hydroxylase, EC 1.14.13.9 kynureninase, EC 3.7.1.3 3-hydroxyanthranilate oxidase, EC 1.10.3.5 picolinate carboxylase, EC 4.1.1.45 kynurenine oxoglutarate aminotransferase, EC 2.6.1.7 kynurenine glyoxylate aminotransferase, 2.6.1.63 tryptophan hydroxylase, EC 1.14.16.4 and 5-hydroxytryptophan decarboxylase, EC 4.1.1.26. Relative molecular masses (Mr) tryptophan, 204.2 serotonin, 176.2 kynurenine, 208.2 3-hydroxykynurenine, 223.2 kynurenic acid, 189.2 xanthurenic acid, 205.2 and quinolinic acid 167.1. CoA, coenzyme A.

As shown in Figure 8.4, the synthesis of NAD from tryptophan involves the nonenzymic cyclization of aminocarhoxymuconic semialdehyde to quinolinic acid. The alternative metahoUc fate of aminocarhoxymuconic semialdehyde is decarboxylation, catalyzed hy picolinate carboxylase, leading into the oxidative branch of the pathway, and catabolism via acetyl coenzyme A. There is thus competition between an enzyme-catalyzed reaction that has hyperbolic, saturable kinetics, and a nonenzymic reaction thathas linear, first-order kinetics. 

Animals and yeasts can synthesize nicotinamide from tryptophan via hydroxyanthranilic acid (52) and quinolinic acid (53, Fig. 6A) (31), but the biosynthetic capacity of humans is limited. On a diet that is low in tryptophan, the combined contributions of endogenous synthesis and nutritional supply of precursors, such as nicotinic acid, nicotinamide, and nicotinamide riboside, may be insufficient, which results in cutaneous manifestation of niacin deficiency under the clinical picture of pellagra. Exogenous supply of nicotinamide riboside was shown to promote NAD+-dependent Sir2-function and to extend life-span in yeast without calorie restriction (32). 

B) in plants and bacteria. 50, dihydroxyacetone phosphate 51 tryptophan 52, hydroxyanthranilic acid 53, quinolinic acid 54, aspartate 55, nicotinic acid mononucleotide 56, NAD, 57, NADP. 

The enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) metabolizes tryptophan to kynurenine, kynurenine is then converted to quinolinic acid via the intermediate 3-HK by the enzyme kynurenine hydroxylase. Both IDO and kynurenine hydroxylase are induced by the type-1 cytokine IFN-y. The activity of IDO is an important regulatory component in the control of lymphocyte proliferation, the activation of the type-1 immune response and the regulation of the tryptophan metabolism (Mellor and Munn, 1999). It induces a halt in the lymphocyte cell cycle due to the catabolism of tryptophan (Munn et al., 1999). In contrast to the type-1 cytokines, the type-2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-10 inhibit the IFN-y-induced IDO-mediated tryptophan cataboUsm (Weiss et al., 1999). IDO is located in several cell types including monocytes and microglial cells (Alberati et al., 1996). An IFN-y-induced, IDO-mediated decrease of CNS... 

Apart fi om certain liver cells, only macrophage derived cells are able to convert tryptophan into quinolonic acid (Saito et al., 1993). Interestingly, in a model of infection, the highest concentrations of quinolinic acid are found in the gray and white matter of the cortex, notin subcortical areas. High levels of quinolinic acid therefore may lead to cortical dysfunction (Heyes et al., 1998). 

A potential for endogenous excitotoxin produced in the CNS via tryptophan metabolism has been localised to microglia.97 Microglia contain indoleamine-2,3-dioxy-genase (the first enzyme in this pathway), which converts tryptophan to kynurenine, and which is induced in microglia and macrophages by IL-1 and infections.98 Inhibitors of quinolinic acid production such as 4-chloro-3-hydroxyanthranilate and ///-nitrobenzylalanine99 100 could probably be of therapeutic value. 

It has been shown by the author that examination of the products excreted after administration of tryptophan to vitamin-deficient animals can give valuable information on the function of that vitamin in tryptophan metabolism (142, 171, 173). When tryptophan is given to the riboflavin-deficient rat there is a large excretion of those substances which lie to the left of line BB in diagram 19 (142, 582). This clearly indicates that this is the step at which riboflavin functions, and this is strongly supported by the fact that riboflavin deficiency can reduce up to ten-fold the conversion of tryptophan to quinolinic acid, whereas similar conversion of hydroxykynurenine is unaffected (385). On the other hand, the excretory pattern... 

Isotopic experiments (763) with tryptophan labeled with N and deuterium in the indole ring have shown that quinolinic acid nitrogen is probably entirely derived from the indole nitrogen of tryptophan, and that scission of the benzene ring probably occurs between carbons 3 and 4. Presumably, therefore, the hydroxyanthranilic acid is converted to intermediate A without participation of a catechol-type intermediate, and it is possible that the phosphate-bond energy of hydroxyanthranilic acid phosphate (if this is in fact an intermediate) may contribute to the transformation. It is known... 

Behavioral disorders such as anorexia, sleep disturbances, and pain insensitivity associated with hyperammonemia have been attributed to increased tryptophan transport across the blood-brain barrier and the accumulation of its metabolites. Two of the tryptophan-derived metabolites are serotonin and quinolinic acid (discussed later). The latter is an excitotoxin at the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors. Thus, the mechanism of the ammonium-induced neurological abnormalities is multifactorial. Normally only small amounts of NH3 (i.e., NH4 ) are present in plasma, since NH3 is rapidly removed by reactions in tissues of glutamate dehydrogenase, glutamine synthase, and urea formation. 

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