Everything about Sarcosine totally explained
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Sarcosine is the N-
methyl derivative of
glycine. It is a natural
amino acid found in muscles and other body tissues. In the laboratory, it may be synthesized from
chloroacetic acid and
methylamine. Sarcosine is found naturally as an intermediate in the metabolism of
choline to glycine. Sarcosine is sweet to the taste and dissolves in water. It is used in manufacturing biodegradable surfactants and toothpastes as well as in other applications.
Sarcosine is ubiquitous in biological materials and is present in such foods as egg yolks, turkey, ham, vegetables, legumes, etc.
Sarcosine is reported to be formed from dietary intake of choline and from the metabolism of
methionine and is rapidly degraded to glycine, which, in addition to its importance as a constituent of protein, plays a significant role in various physiological processes as a prime metabolic source of components of living cells such as
glutathione,
creatine,
purines and
serine. The concentration of sarcosine in blood serum of normal human subjects is reported to be 1.59 ± 1.08 millimolar.
Sarcosine has no known toxicity, as evidenced by the lack of phenotypic manifestations of
sarcosinemia, an inborn error of sarcosine metabolism. Sarcosinemia can result from severe
folate deficiency because of the
folate requirement for the conversion of sarcosine to glycine.
Recently, sarcosine has been investigated in relation to the mental illness
schizophrenia. Early evidence suggests that intake of 2 g/day sarcosine as add-on therapy to certain
antipsychotics (not clozapine) in schizophrenia gives significant additional reductions in both positive and negative symptomatology as well as the neurocognitive and general psychopathological
symptoms that are common to the illness. Sarcosine had been tolerated well. It is also under investigation for the possible prevention of schizophrenic illness during the
prodromal stage of the disease. It acts as a type 1 glycine transporter inhibitor. It increases
glycine concentrations in the
brain thus causing increased
NMDA receptor activation and a reduction in symptoms. As such, it might be an interesting treatment option and a possible new direction in the treatment of the mental illness in the future.
Sarcosine was first isolated and named by the German chemist
Justus von Liebig in 1847, while
Jacob Volhard first synthezised it in
1862.
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