Background: Autoimmune type 1 diabetes mellitus is caused by T-cell mediated immune destruction of the insulin-producing β-cell in pancreatic islets of Langerhans. Specificity of the auto-antibodies and of the auto-reactive T-cells has been investigated, in which several auto-antigens were proposed. Objective: To determine whether glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) feeding would induce oral tol...

The cellular and molecular factors responsible for neurotoxic effects (e.g.) tardive dyskinesia are incompletely understood. Accumulation of free radical species (ROS) is major contributing factor for such effects. The observation that suppression of glutamate decarboxylase in substantial nigra and increase release of glutamic acid support that neurotoxic effects of glutamic acid mediate throug...

L-threo-3-Fluoroglutamate and L-erythro-3-fluoroglutamate were tested with glutamate decarboxylase from Escherichia coli. Both isomers were substrates: the threo isomer was decarboxylated into optically active 4-amino-3-fluorobutyrate, whereas the erythro isomer lost the fluorine atom during the reaction, yielding succinic semialdehyde after hydrolysis of the unstable intermediate enamine. The ...