Glutathione // Acetylcysteine - The new old SuperDrug !?!

Where is the link between N-Acetylcysteine and Glutathione ?
In short words: N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is precursor of glutathione (GSH). The acetyl rest is tributed to a tissue friendly behaviour. Also solubility problems play a role. In the next complex steps NAC is transformed via L-cysteine into GSH.

What is glutathione (GSH)?
Glutathione is a natural occuring peptide (Hopkins 1921) - a sequence of amino acids (glutamine, cysteine, glycine).
The name is: gamma-L-Glutamyl-L-cysteinyl-glycine. The formula is C₁₀H₁₇N₃O₆S - with a molecular weight of 307.32
Glutathione is found in blood and most cells of the body in (high) concentrations (millimolar range).

How is glutathione acting?
GSH is a powerfull antioxidant. Glutathione exists in the reduced form (GSH), and is in a equilibrium with its oxidized form (GSSG) - a disulfide. The principle of action as an antioxidant is based on the fact, that it reduces other toxic substances before they can demage other molecules or important parts of the cell. In this case GSH is oxidized to GSSG. The ratio of GSSG/GSH is an important marker of oxidative stress.

The biochemical conversion from L-cysteine into glutathione is shown here. And the following metabolism of glutathione is shown here.

There exist thousands of articles about GSH, please go to the NAC-Literature section to find more. If you want to read more online about GSH please read this review (by Ben M Lomaestro and Margaret Malone).

PLEASE send information about new research efforts to nac@acetylcysteine.org .

New topics or interesting topics can be free hosted on this domain or linked to www.acetylcysteine.org .

For discussions please use the Message Board. Thank you!

On the message board you can discuss this specific topic or can ask other people.
For posting a message please use <Login to post> and hold your E-Mail and Password

Go to: Message Board TOP