And here’s a wild one for you infectious-disease freaks: intracellular parasites like toxoplasma & malaria induce IDO1 to evade immune attack. http://www.jbc.org/content/287/24/20197.full.pdf …
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What happens to a human with TDO2 deficiency? In this case study, high levels of tryptophan and serotonin but no apparent health problems.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1096719217300641 …
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You know how activated microglia play an important role in neurodegeneration (from things like Alzheimer’s and head trauma)? Kynurenine is involved here too! Microglia turn tryptophan into kynurenine and thence to the neurotoxin quinolinic acid. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1217971/pdf/8973572.pdf …
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It’s primarily activated macrophages and microglia (and not, say, neurons or astrocytes) that produce quinolinic acid, which is found elevated in brain infection, head trauma, Huntington’s, and AIDS dementia.https://journals.lww.com/neuroreport/Abstract/1997/01200/Activated_human_microglia_produce_the_excitotoxin.11.aspx …
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Quinolinic acid is an NMDA agonist, which means it spreads brain damage by excessively “exciting” neurotransmitter receptors, letting so many highly reactive calcium ions into the neuron that they kill it. This process has a role in virtually every neurodegenerative disease.
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Moreover, quinolinic acid makes brain tumors more resistant to oxidative stress (like radiation, chemo, or the body’s own immune defenses. ://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/canres/73/11/3225.full.pdf.)
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Viruses can induce kynurenine production; here, influenza increases TDO and IDO expression & kynurenine production in rat brains: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=TDO+virus&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DM_fb6QYy0QYJ …
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TDO, IDO, kynurenine, and quinolinic acid are found elevated in various viral infections: HIV, hepatitis B and C, herpesviruses, etc.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.4137/IJTR.S26862 …
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Why? Tryptophan depletion is itself an immune defense against some bacteria and viruses. In response to viral infection, the body produces IFN-gamma, which activates IDO and TDO, which make kynurenine. Unfortunately, kynurenine has all the nasty effects mentioned upthread.
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So if you have a *chronic* viral infection, you’re going to keep pumping out kynurenines as a side effect of trying to kill the virus, which cause immunosuppression, which makes you more susceptible to viral infection...it’s a vicious cycle!
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What kinds of drugs inhibit IDO and TDO? Well, azole antifungals (like ketoconazole) and the MAOI antifungal phenelzine (also known as Nardil, the Flame of the West) https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=20&q=ido1+inhibitor&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DYbQyk8FoSIMJ …
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The antiviral acyclovir is also an IDO1 inhibitor:https://jneuroinflammation.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1742-2094-7-44 …
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Acyclovir inhibits TDO too:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11011-008-9095-4 …
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And so does the antibiotic minocycline:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1043466617303848 …
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End of conversation
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