| Description | Taurine is a sulfur amino acid like methionine, cystine, cysteine, and homocysteine. It is a lesser-known amino acid because it is not incorporated into the structural building blocks of protein. Yet taurine is an essential amino acid in pre-term and newborn infants of humans and many other species. Adults can synthesize their own taurine, yet are probably dependent, in part, on dietary taurine. Taurine is abundant in the brain, heart, breast, gallbladder, and kidney and has important roles in health and disease in these organs. Taurine has many diverse biological functions including serving as a neurotransmitter in the brain, a stabilizer of cell membranes, and a facilitator in the transport of ions such as sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Taurine is highly concentrated in animal and fish protein, which are good sources of dietary taurine. It can be synthesized by the body from cysteine when vitamin B6 is present. Deficiency of taurine occurs in premature infants, neonates fed formula milk, and various disease states. Several inborn errors of taurine metabolism have been described. Perry syndrome is an unusual neuropsychiatric disorder inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion through three generations of a family. Symptoms began late in the fifth decade in 6 affected persons and death occurred after 4 to 6 years. The earliest and most prominent symptom was mental depression that was not responsive to antidepressant drugs or electroconvulsive therapy. Sleep disturbances, exhaustion, and marked weight loss were features. Parkinsonism developed later, and respiratory failure occurred terminally (OMIM: 168605 ). Hypertaurinuric cardiomyopathy describes congestive cardiomyopathy and markedly elevated urinary taurine levels (about 5 times normal). Other family members had late or holosystolic mitral valve prolapse and elevated urinary taurine values (about 2.5 times normal). In two with mitral valve prolapse, congestive cardiomyopathy eventually developed while the amounts of urinary taurine doubled (OMIM: 145350 ). Taurine, after GABA, is the second most important inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. Its inhibitory effect is one source of taurine's anticonvulsant and antianxiety properties. It also lowers glutamic acid in the brain, and preliminary clinical trials suggest taurine may be useful in some forms of epilepsy. Taurine in the brain is usually associated with zinc or manganese. The amino acids alanine and glutamic acid, as well as pantothenic acid, inhibit taurine metabolism while vitamins A and B6, zinc, and manganese help build taurine. Cysteine and B6 are the nutrients most directly involved in taurine synthesis. Taurine levels have been found to decrease significantly in many depressed patients. One reason that the findings are not entirely clear is that taurine is often elevated in the blood of epileptics who need it. It is often difficult to distinguish compensatory changes in human biochemistry from true metabolic or deficiency disease. Low levels of taurine are found in retinitis pigmentosa. Taurine deficiency in experimental animals produces degeneration of light-sensitive cells. Therapeutic applications of taurine to eye disease are likely to be forthcoming. Taurine has many important metabolic roles. Supplements can stimulate prolactin and insulin release. The parathyroid gland makes a peptide hormone called glutataurine (glutamic acid-taurine), which further demonstrates taurine's role in endocrinology. Taurine increases bilirubin and cholesterol excretion in bile, critical to normal gallbladder function. It seems to inhibit the effect of morphine and potentiates the effects of opiate antagonists. Low plasma taurine levels have been found in a variety of conditions, i.e. depression, hypertension, hypothyroidism, gout, institutionalized patients, infertility, obesity, kidney failure, and others (http://www.dcnutrition.com/AminoAcids/). Moreover, taurine is found to be associated with maple syrup urine disease, which is an inborn error of metabolism. |
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