Whats special about tyrosine?
A. Tyrosine is an aromatic amino acid that’s important in allowing proteins to make contact with other proteins. It is also important for regulating many processes that control the major functions in cells, such as whether to divide, to differentiate, or to die. It’s one of the more uncommon amino acids, occurring in only 3-5% of proteins. There are many proteins that have no tyrosines at all, so human superoxide dismutase is not an exception. Q. Are other antioxidants like uric acid or coenzyme Q10 useful in ALS? A. Uric acid may work because the pathologic process weve implicated in ALS can be inhibited by uric acid. Uric acid is being used as a promising treatment for multiple sclerosis in an animal model. The problem is that it is very difficult to get uric acid into the brain. In our cell culture models, uric acid is protective, and Kristine Robinson in my lab is testing it in vivo right now in animal models of ALS. In some transgenic animal models of ALS, coenzyme Q10 is protecti
