N-Acetylglutamate Synthase Deficiency - Mechanism

Mechanism

Carbamoyl phosphate synthase I is an enzyme found in mitochondrial matrix and it catalyzes the very first reaction of the Urea cycle, in which carbamoyl phosphate is produced.

Carbamoyl Phosphate Synthase 1, abbreviated as CPS1, is activated by its natural activator N-Acetyl glutamate, which in turn is synthesized from acetyl-CoA and glutamic acid in the reaction catalyzed by N-Acetyl glutamate synthase, commonly called NAGS. N-Acetyl Glutamate is required for the Urea cycle to take place.

Deficiency in N-Acetyl Glutamate Synthase or a genetic mutation in the gene coding for the enzyme, will lead to urea cycle failure in which ammonia is not converted to urea, but rather accumulated in blood leading to the condition called Type I Hyperammonemia. This is a severe neonatal disorder with fatal consequences, if not detected immediately upon birth.

Read more about this topic:  N-Acetylglutamate Synthase Deficiency

Famous quotes containing the word mechanism:

    Life is an offensive, directed against the repetitious mechanism of the Universe.
    Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947)

    A mechanism of some kind stands between us and almost every act of our lives.
    Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 3, ch. 2 (1962)

    The two elements the traveler first captures in the big city are extrahuman architecture and furious rhythm. Geometry and anguish. At first glance, the rhythm may be confused with gaiety, but when you look more closely at the mechanism of social life and the painful slavery of both men and machines, you see that it is nothing but a kind of typical, empty anguish that makes even crime and gangs forgivable means of escape.
    Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)