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