Carnosine (β-alanyl-L-histidine) is an endogenous dipeptide widely and abundantly distributed in muscle and nervous tissues of several animal species. Many functions have been proposed for this compound, such as antioxidant and metal ion-chelator properties. However, the main limitation on therapeutic use of carnosine on pathologies related to increased oxidative stress and/or metal ion dishome...

The endogenous dipeptide carnosine (beta-alanyl-L-histidine), at 0.1-10 mM, can provoke sustained contractures n rabbit saphenous vein rings with greater efficacy than noradrenaline. The effects are specific; anserine and homocarnosine are ineffective, as are carnosine's constituent amino acids histidine and beta-alanine. Zinc ions enhance the maximum carnosine-induced tension (to 127 +/- 13% o...

Background: Carnosine is a dipeptide molecule (?-alanyl-l-histidine) with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-glycation, and chelating properties. It used in exercise physiology as food supplement to increase performance; however, vitro evidence suggests that carnosine may exhibit anti-cancer Methods: In this study, we investigated the effect of on breast, ovarian, colon, leukemic cancer cell ...

The addition of the neuropeptide carnosine ( -alanyl-L-histidine) as a food additive to the basic protocol of Parkinson’s disease treatment results in significant improvement of neurological symptoms, along with increase in red blood cell Cu/Zn-SOD and decrease in blood plasma protein carbonyls and lipid hydroperoxides, with no noticeable change in platelets MAO B activity. The combination of c...

Microbiological methods have been applied previously to the determination of carnosine and anserine. Mueller (1) demonstrated that the diphtheria bacillus was able to split L-carnosine enzymatically and use the liberated @alanine for growth. Apparently a specific enzyme was involved, as the organism did not cleave the D isomer. It was not determined whether anserine might also be utilized by th...

Two imidazole derivatives, carnosine and anserine, have been isolated from vertebrate skeletal muscle. Carnosine may be readily obtained from the ox (l), horse (2), pig (3), etc. Anserine, a methyl carnosine, has been isolated from birds, a reptile (4), fish (5), and certain mammals (6). The presence of the two compounds in muscles from the same animal has been adequately demonstrated only once...

The dipeptide L-carnosine has a number of important biological properties. Here, we explore the effect of attachment of a bulky hydrophobic aromatic unit, Fmoc [N-(fluorenyl-9-methoxycarbonyl)] on the self-assembly of Fmoc-L-carnosine, i.e., Fmoc-β-alanine-histidine (Fmoc-βAH). It is shown that Fmoc-βAH forms well-defined amyloid fibrils containing β sheets above a critical aggregation concentr...

Anserine biosynthesis may occur in skeletal muscle by two and possibly three pathways: (a) condensation of l-methylhistidine with p-alanine (1, Z), (6) direct N-methylation of carnosine (3, 4), and, possibly, (c) P-alanyl transfer from carnosine to 1-methylhistidine (5). The relative importance of these various routes is unevaluated, although some studies in viva suggest that species difference...

Carnosine (beta-alanyl-L-histidine) and homocarnosine (gamma-aminobutyric acid-L-histidine) are two naturally occurring dipeptides with potential neuroprotective and neurotransmitter functions in the brain. Peptidase activities degrading both carnosine and homocarnosine have been described previously, but the genes linked to these activities were unknown. Here we present the identification of t...

The antioxidant activity of L-carnosine (beta-alanyl-L-histidine, bioactivated in ocular tissues) versus N-acetylcarnosine (N-acetyl-beta-alanyl-L-histidine, ocular-targeted small dipeptide molecules) was studied in aqueous solution and in a lipid environment, employing liposomes as a model of lipid membranes. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) were generated by an iron/ascorbate promoter system for...