Carnosine - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Carnosine should not be confused with Carnitine
Carnitine
Carnitine is a quaternary ammonium compound biosynthesized from the amino acids lysine and methionine. In living cells, it is required for the transport of fatty acids from the cytosol into the mitochondria during the breakdown of lipids for the generation of metabolic energy. It is widely...

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Carnosine (beta-alanyl-L-histidine) is a dipeptide

Dipeptide

A dipeptide is a molecule consisting of two amino acids joined by a single peptide bond.Dipeptides are produced from polypeptides by the action of the hydrolase enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase. Dietary proteins are digested to dipeptides and amino acids, and the dipeptides are absorbed more rapidly...

of the amino acids beta-alanine

Beta-alanine

β-Alanine is a naturally occurring beta amino acid, which are amino acids in which the amino group is at the β-position from the carboxylate group . The IUPAC name for β-alanine would be 3-aminopropanoic acid...

and histidine

Histidine

Histidine Histidine, an essential amino acid, has a positively charged imidazole functional group. It is one of the 22 proteinogenic amino acids. Its codons are CAU and CAC. Histidine was first isolated by German physician Albrecht Kossel in 1896. Histidine is an essential amino acid in humans...

. It is highly concentrated in muscle

Muscle

Muscle is a contractile tissue of animals and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. Muscle cells contain contractile filaments that move past each other and change the size of the cell. They are classified as skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscles. Their function is to...

and brain

Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...

tissue

Biological tissue

Tissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. A tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function. These are called tissues because of their identical functioning...

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Researchers in Britain, South Korea, Russia and other countries have shown that carnosine has a number of antioxidant

Antioxidant

An antioxidant is a molecule capable of inhibiting the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons or hydrogen from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals. In turn, these radicals can start chain reactions. When...

properties that may be beneficial. Carnosine has been proven to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) as well as alpha-beta unsaturated aldehydes formed from peroxidation of cell membrane fatty acids during oxidative stress

Oxidative stress

Oxidative stress represents an imbalance between the production and manifestation of reactive oxygen species and a biological system's ability to readily detoxify the reactive intermediates or to repair the resulting damage...

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Carnosine can oppose glycation

Glycation

Glycation is the result of the bonding of a protein or lipid molecule with a sugar molecule, such as fructose or glucose, without the controlling action of an enzyme. All blood sugars are reducing molecules. Glycation may occur either inside the body or outside the body...

and it can chelate divalent metal ions. Chronic glycolysis is suspected to accelerate aging. Carnosine was found to inhibit diabetic nephropathy by protecting the podocytes and mesangial cells. Because of its antioxidant, antiglycator and metal chelator properties, carnosine supplements have been proposed as a general anti-aging therapy.
Carnosine containing products are also used in topical preparations to reduce wrinkles on the skin.

Some studies have detected beneficial effects of N-acetyl-carnosine

Acetyl-carnosine

N-Acetylcarnosine is a naturally occurring compound chemically related to the dipeptide carnosine. Its molecular structure is similar to carnosine with the exception that it carries an additional acetyl group...

in preventing and treating cataracts of the eyes; in one of these, carnosine was found to reduce cloudiness in rat lenses that were exposed to guanidine to cause cataracts. However, claims that carnosine confers these and other posited ophthalmological benefits are, as of yet, insufficiently supported for endorsement by the mainstream medical community; Britain's Royal College of Ophthalmologists, for instance, has asserted that neither safety nor efficacy has been sufficiently demonstrated to recommend carnosine's use as a topical treatment for cataracts.

A small 2002 study reported that carnosine improved socialization and receptive vocabulary in children with autism

Autism

Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...

. Improvement in this study could have been due to maturation, educational interventions, placebo effect, or other confounds that were not addressed in the study design. In animal models, supplemental carnosine can increase corticosterone

Corticosterone

Corticosterone is a 21-carbon steroid hormone of the corticosteroid type produced in the cortex of the adrenal glands.-Roles:In many species, including amphibians, reptiles, rodents and birds, corticosterone is a main glucocorticoid, involved in regulation of fuel, immune reactions, and stress...

levels, which may explain the hyperactivity sometimes seen in high doses. However, the aforementioned study used carnosine injected into chicks intracerebroventricularly, and a raise in corticosterone levels has not yet been found in humans.

In animal models carnosine has been shown to retard cancer growth and protect against alcohol-induced oxidative stress as well as ethanol-induced chronic liver damage. Carnosine is also neuroprotective against permanent cerebral ischemia in mice.

Carnosine can increase the Hayflick limit

Hayflick limit

The Hayflick limit is the number of times a normal cell population will divide before it stops, presumably because the telomeres reach a critical length....

in human fibroblasts, as well as appearing to reduce the telomere shortening rate. This could potentially favor the growth of certain cancers that thrive due to telomere preservation. Carnosine is also considered as a geroprotector

Geroprotector

Geroprotector is a therapeutic that aims to affect the root cause of aging and age-related diseases, and thus prolong the life span of animals. Some possible geroprotectors include melatonin, carnosine, and metformin....

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Typical vegetarian diets are thought to be lacking in carnosine, but whether this has a detrimental effect on vegetarians is unknown.

See also