Saturday’s Secrets: Week 4

Free glutamic acid (a.k.a. free glutamate) is an excitotoxic — brain damaging — amino acid.

To explain:

The term “excitotoxin” was coined in 1969 by neuroscientist John W. Olney to describe his discovery that while glutamic acid present in controlled quantities was essential to normal body function, when accumulated in amounts more than needed for normal body function, glutamate neurotransmitters fired non-stop until the brain cells targeted by those neurotransmitters died. 

Resources: Glutamate as a neurotransmitter in the healthy brain: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4133642/  Glutamate, a neurotransmitter–and so much more. A synopsis of Wierzba III: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16500003/   The role of glutamate transporters in neurodegenerative diseases and potential opportunities for intervention:    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17517448/

We invite you to join us each Saturday for more glutamate-industry secrets.

Prior blogs can be accessed by clicking on the links to right.