U of Alberta researchers discover important mechanism in fighting infection (arginine)

University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry ^ | August 30, 2010 | Unknown

[decimon]

Richard Lamb and his post doctoral fellow Virginie Mieulet, in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, may be able to explain why proper nutrition is so vital in fighting infection.

They have discovered an amino acid, called arginine, is required to let the body know that it's being attacked by an infection.

It is still early in their work but this discovery could have implications for the millions of people in third world countries that do not get enough food and consequently become ill with infection.

It may also be the mechanism involved in chronic inflammation, like arthritis because if you have too much arginine it may cause the body to be in a constant state of thinking it is being attacked.

In a healthy person, macrophages are the first cells to arrive at the site of infection. They eat the infected cells and present a molecule that is recognized by the immune system on the surface of the infected cell which attracts more immune fighting cells to the area. According to Lamb it is known that arginine is essential for the function of macrophages but until now no one realized that arginine has a much bigger role.

In their most recent work, Lamb and Mieulet presented arginine to a laboratory model. These models were better able to fight infection even if they were malnourished.

"This is a major work," said Lamb. "If this holds true in humans it shows that one aspect of nutrition that is critical is the level of amino acids."

###

The study, which is published in the August edition of journal Science Signalling, has taken the research group from the University of Alberta three years.

[decimon]

Ping

[exDemMom]

Ugh, that is one of the worst pieces of science writing I have seen. Even some of my high school interns have been able to write better than that.

Maybe later, if I have time, I’ll look up the original research article and find out what the newly discovered role of arginine really is.

[PoloSec]

I learned about the effect of arginine over 35yrs ago in a book by Durk Pearson titled Life Extension.

[agere_contra]

Oh man. After reading that incoherent prose, my brain is ‘in a constant state of thinking it is being attacked’.

[November 2010]

Foods high in arganine (shellfish, soy, seeds and nuts, sea lion liver (if you happen to be a Native American))

http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000089000000000000000.html

[outinyellowdogcountry]

Please let me know if and when you decipher the original. My mother in law is having some health problems and some things in the poorly written article seem to correspond with her issues.

[hennie pennie]

Arginine?

Fights infections?

Isn’t that the name of the protein which feeds any of 100s of different viruses in the Herpes family? And aren’t these hundreds of different herpes viruses implicated in many dozens of chronic disease conditions?

Or am I all mixed up on the name of the protein? I thought that lots of people with all sorts of different diseases are supplementing with LYSINE, which prevents the argenine from letting the myriad herpes infections go rampantly wild in the body?

I’m certain I’ve seen articles about this in the past decade....

Ring a bell, anyone?

[hennie pennie]

IF you have the time & inclination to look at the original research, please ping me when you post again to this thread.

IF anyone feels they need arginine, a handful of cashews has PLENTY.

However, I’ve read lots of stuff online over the past 15 years that arginine is implicated in the replication of all herpes virii, and that many people supplement with Lysine because one or another of the 100s of herpes viruses MAY be directly implicated in various chronic diseases.

TIA

[muawiyah]

you can look it up easily enough. I did. Minimal effect ~ mostly personal testimonies but little controlled study of the phenomenon.

I will continue eating steak, porkchops, fish, reindeer, seals (if I can get them), and so forth.

[hennie pennie]

Thanks, much -— I thought I’d seen ‘research’ stuff, as opposed to personal anecdote -— but if that’s all you ran across, too, then my memory is mistaken.