JOURNAL OF CANCER PREVENTION
Vol. 24, No. 2, June 2019
https://doi.org/10.15430/JCP.2019.24.2.72
pISSN 2288-3649ㆍeISSN 2288-3657
www.jcpjournal.org
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.15430/JCP.2019.24.2.72&domain=pdf&date_stamp=2019-6-30
Therapeutic Effects of Amino Acids in Liver
Diseases: Current Studies and Future Perspectives
Review
Da-Young Lee, Eun-Hee Kim
College of Pharmacy and Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, CHA University, Seongnam, Korea
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary malignant tumor of the liver and the third most common cause of
cancer-related death worldwide. HCC is caused by infection of hepatitis B/C virus and liver dysfunctions, such as alcoholic liver disease,
nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and cirrhosis. Amino acids are organic substances containing amine and carboxylic acid functional groups.
There are over 700 kinds of amino acids in nature, but only about 20 of them are used to synthesize proteins in cells. Liver is an
important organ for protein synthesis, degradation and detoxification as well as amino acid metabolism. In the liver, there are abundant
non-essential amino acids, such as alanine, aspartate, glutamate, glycine, and serine and essential amino acids, such as histidine and
threonine. These amino acids are involved in various cellular metabolisms, the synthesis of lipids and nucleotides as well as detoxification
reactions. Understanding the role of amino acids in the pathogenesis of liver and the effects of amino acid intake on liver disease can
be a promising strategy for the prevention and treatment of liver disease. In this review, we describe the biochemical properties and
functions of amino acids and to review how they have been applied to treatment of liver diseases.
(J Cancer Prev 2019;24:72-78)
Key Words: Amino acids, Liver diseases, Hepatic steatosis, Cirrhosis, Hepatocellular carcinoma
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