Word: amino
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Diehn is studying the proteins to see what amino acids are important in order to eventually determine the differences in RNA capping in humans and other species...
Another line of investigation revealed that serotonin may play a role in sleep. Destroy the raphe nuclei in cats, and they develop permanent and total insomnia. Give the wakeful cats a shot of serotonin, and they immediately go to sleep. In humans the amino acid L-tryptophan, which is converted to serotonin in the brain, is sometimes used as a sleeping pill. (A bad batch of L-tryptophan killed several people in the late 1980s and effectively killed the craze.) In another experiment, researchers discovered that when they stimulated raphe cells to release extra serotonin not in the brain...
...knows for certain what causes some individuals and not others to overproduce homocysteine. But the evidence points to a shortage of vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and folic acid, all of which work to convert the amino acid into a molecular form the body can use. The answer for people concerned about cardiac health would seem to be for them to keep their intake of the protective vitamins high. The Harvard Health Letter has recommended increasing consumption of a range of foods--including leafy green vegetables, beans, peas, grains and certain meats and dairy foods--to keep homocysteine in check. Many...
...everyone is sold on such a simple prescription. Even if homocysteine is behind some cases of heart disease, it's unlikely to be behind them all, and there's no guarantee that managing the amino acid will decrease the risk of cardiac trouble. Regardless of circulating homocysteine levels, smoking and obesity will still ravage the cardiovascular system, and a poor diet will still choke the blood with fats. Cardiologist Roger Blumenthal of Johns Hopkins University estimates the share of all cardiac cases attributable to homocysteine at fewer than...
What's more, even for patients whose illnesses are caused by elevated amino acids, diet may not be much of a cure. Scientists know cholesterol levels in the blood fluctuate within a limited range; when people eat less fat, the liver simply manufactures more. It's not yet known whether there is a similar set point for homocysteine. "People are jumping the gun if they think they can just take vitamins and skip the traditional health measures like exercising and eating a low-fat diet," says Blumenthal. "All the evidence has yet to come in." Nonetheless, in a field...