Cloning of rat and human kynurenine aminotransferase.

Abstract

Kynurenic acid (KYNA), a normal component of the mammalian brain, has recently gained attention as a broad spectrum antagonist of ionotropic excitatory amino acid receptors (Stone et al., 1993). While in mammalian peripheral organs, KYNA is biosynthesized from L-kynurenine by several rather unspecific aminotransferases (Noguchi et al., 1975, Okuno et al, 1980), it appears that a single enzyme, kynurenine aminotransferase (KAT), is responsible for KYNA synthesis in the rat brain (Okuno et al., 1991a). In the human brain, on the other hand, two enzymes (KAT I and KAT II) have been characterized (Okuno et al., 1991b). These two KATs have distinct catalytic characteristics and can be physically separated by conventional techniques.KeywordsKynurenic AcidCysteine ConjugateKynurenine AminotransferaseHuman Brain cDNA LibraryKYNA SynthesisThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.