Re: specific amino acid restriction does the same thing as calorie restriction?

From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sat Apr 19 2003 - 15:59:39 MDT

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    On Sat, 19 Apr 2003, R. Coyote wrote:

    > I'm wondering if proteolytic enzymes such as papain or bromelain would cause
    > more protein recycling

    Nope, not to my knowledge. These may help in digestion but that
    is about it. In fact because they may provide a greater availability
    of amino acids, particularly the essential ones, they might even have
    an effect opposite of that you were seeking.

    You have to up regulate the activity of the two primary
    protein recycling pathways in individual cells. Those
    are the "26S proteasome" and the "lysosome" (Google for more).
    There may be some minor protein recycling that takes place
    via specific proteases but I'm unsure about this.

    I strongly suspect that there are sensors that detect
    shortages of the essential amino acids [see 1]. Under
    those situations I expect that protein recycling via
    one or both of the above cited pathways gets its activity
    increased to provide more of these amino acids within
    the cell. A lack of the essential amino acids is a
    critical condition as it would bring most protein
    synthesis to a rapid halt. In the case of the non-essential
    amino acids the cell can compensate by shifting resources
    to the synthesis of those amino acids.

    The only way I know of currently to activate these pathways
    is to remove some of the essential amino acids from the diet.
    Eventually we may understand the activation pathways in more
    detail and be able to develop drugs but that is at least a
    few years from now. The only way I know of currently would
    be to live on a diet biased towards beans or corn. I believe
    both of these may be deficient in one or more of the essential
    amino acids (Harvey or gts or someone may want to confirm this).
    Obviously there is a possible market out there for a "protein
    shake" which leaves out specific amino acids if it can be
    determined that low consumption of specific amino acids
    activates the protein recycling pathways in synergistic ways.

    Robert

    1. http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/N/Nutrition.html#protein



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