Comment · Mon, July 20, 2015 · Ceretropic
I have clinically diagnosed ASD. I started using N-acetyl cysteine about a month ago, here are my results.
Original post in this thread
Seicair · 9 points
Background
I've been reading about glutathione reducing oxidative stresses associated with autistic symptoms, and after a while decided to try N-acetyl cysteine to increase my glutathione levels. Search pubmed for "n-acetyl cysteine autism" for various studies.
Cysteine is an amino acid naturally present in our diet, and that our body requires to function. It can be synthesized from methionine, a different amino acid, but methionine cannot be synthesized by our body. N-acetyl cysteine is a form of cysteine with an additional acetyl group that's more readily absorbable; even at that oral availability is fairly low, (wiki says 4-10%).
Glutathione has a number of functions, among them it behaves as an antioxidant. It's made from 3 amino acids; cysteine, glycine, and glutamate. Cysteine is the limiting reagent, as glycine and glutamate can be fully synthesized by our body. Supplementation of cysteine can increase levels of glutathione.
Results
I feel a little calmer, more relaxed, laid back. The studies you can find on pubmed often focus on reduced irritability as an effect of supplementing NAC. I wasn't really sure what that meant when I started taking it, but…
What they were answering
Seicair · 2 points
Semax is a peptide, which is a series of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds at the amine and carboxyl groups of amino acids. The body contains a number of enzymes designed to break down peptides into component amino acids, especially in the digestive tract, this is why oral supplementation of Semax wouldn't work. Changing out the carboxylic acid for an amide on the end of Semax makes it harder for enzymes to degrade the peptide. This would make it more stable, increase the half-life, and increase efficacy of the compound.
With cysteine, it's already a single amino acid, and isn't going to be broken down any further. We'll take the acetyl group off, no problem, and then use the cysteine to build glutathione. With the NAC amide, it becomes an amino amide, instead of an amino acid. In glutathione, cysteine is the central amino acid of a tripeptide. I would think that making it into an amide would make it harder to assemble glutathione out of cysteine and the other necessary components.
It's entirely possible that NAC amide or NAC or cysteine have desirable anxiolytic or nootropic effects other than as a glutathione precursor that are enhanced by the modification to an amide. I don't know enough chemistry to say, and the studies I've found that I was able to understand aren't terribly clear on any mechanism other than increased glutathione production.
There ar…
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
You are correct. With NACA, it is not about protecting it from enzymatic degradation. It is more about increasing lipophilicity and membrane permeability. That will allow more of it to pass the blood brain barrier, and more to enter cells through their lipid bilayers.