Comment · Wed, April 22, 2015 · Ceretropic
Nurturing Aromatic L-Amino Acid Decarboxylase: The enzyme that makes some of our favorite chemical friends inside us (and why pyritinol is so intense?)--those with more understanding of it welcome
Original post in this thread
Debonaire_Death · 3 points
I was doing some research on the competition between L-Tyrosine and 5-HTP, and I ran across their main point of contention: aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase, or AAAD. I had never heard about the enzyme before, but it was responsible for making both dopamine and serotonin in our bodies. ~~A short wikipedia read lead me to discovering that this enzyme is also responsible for making a lot of the other active intermediaries in our bodies for these monoamines, as well as PEA and histamine.~~
~~The first insight I got from this fact is that something like Tyrosine needs to be acted on by AAAD multiple times to be converted into dopamine, while L-DOPA only needs a single decarboxylation, which I presume would be less taxing for our AAAD reserves. The same would go for substituting Tryptamine instead of 5-HTP: the enzyme has to do double duty for the former. If my logic is correct, supplementing a chemical further along the pathway for these monoamines would reduce competitive inhibition.~~ EDIT: I appear to be a victim to poor Wikipedia editing: there are other intermediary enzymes involved in the conversio…
What they were answering
Debonaire_Death · 1 points
Oh, well, Wikipedia has failed me again! Totally incorrect pathways listed in the AAAD article. I should have dug a bit deeper instead of letting excitement get the best of me.
It was worth the downvotes to learn all of this, though. I had a feeling that the further along a pathway you decide to go, the more you risk messing with your homeostatic regulators. I never really thought about how it would downregulate the preceding enzymes, though. Honestly, I hadn't even put much thought into the regulation of enzymes until you just said that; just that they can be depleted and competed for.
And I understand the pyritinol's nonpolarity is what makes it so potent, but would you agree this effect could in part be because of it's synergy with AAAD?
Also, supplementing L-tryptophan would better protect endogenous means of sleep instigation than 5-HTP, as likewise with L-tyrosine and focus?
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
The effect could certainly be something to do with AAAD modulation in the CNS. It's just that the reason Pyritinol is more potent than B6, is the fact that mirroring the molecule makes the polarity much more suitable for passing the BBB and other lipid membranes.
I would certainly be more comfortable supplementing L-Tryptophan long-term, rather than 5-HTP.