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Kynurenines in Neurodegenerative Disorders: Therapeutic Consideration

  • Conference paper
Frontiers in Clinical Neuroscience

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 541))

Abstract

The kynurenine pathway is a major route for the conversion of tryptophane to NAD and NADP (Figure 1), leading to production of a number of biologically active molecules with neuroactive properties. During the last decades, the interest in kynurenines has been emerged as two major metabolites of this pathway, quinolinic acid (QUIN) and kynurenic acid (KYNA), act on glutamate receptors. QUIN was shown to be an agonist of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) type of glutamate receptors. KYNA was shown to be an antagonist the same NMDA receptors with a high affinity to the glycin coagonist site. The NMDA receptor activation has been implicated in many neurological disorders such as stroke, brain injury, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and multiple sclerosis. The receptor antagonists reduce the excitotoxic damage both in vivo1,2,3 and in vitro4 and could be used against neurodegenerative disorders. However the classical antagonists have some adverse effects, that limit their clinical use such as memory and learning impairment, psychosis and cell deaths.5 Influencing the kynurenine pathway provides an option to increase the neuroprotective capacity and decrease the concentration of neurotoxic metabolites. On the other hand, the impariment of kynurenine system has been implicated in several neurological disorders such as stroke, brain injury, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and multiple sclerosis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, University of Szeged, POB 427, H-6701, Szeged, Hungary

    Péter Klivényi

  2. Department of Comparative Physiology, University of Szeged, POB 533, H-6701, Szeged, Hungary

    József Toldi

  3. Neurology Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and University of Szeged, POB 427, H-6701, Szeged, Hungary

    László Vécsei

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  1. Péter Klivényi
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  2. József Toldi
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  3. László Vécsei
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary

    László Vécsei

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© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Klivényi, P., Toldi, J., Vécsei, L. (2004). Kynurenines in Neurodegenerative Disorders: Therapeutic Consideration. In: Vécsei, L. (eds) Frontiers in Clinical Neuroscience. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 541. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8969-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8969-7_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-4740-8

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