title: Biogenic amines and polyamines: similar biochemistry for different physiological missions and biomedical applications.
abstract: Biogenic amines are organic polycations derived from aromatic or cationic amino acids. All of them have one or more positive charges and a hydrophobic skeleton. Nature has evolved these molecules to play different physiological roles in mammals, but maintains similar patterns for their metabolic and intracellular handling. As deduced from this review, many questions still remain to be solved around their biochemistry and molecular biology, blocking our aims to control the relevant pathologies in which they are involved (cancer and immunological, neurological, and gastrointestinal diseases). Advances in this knowledge are dispersed among groups working on different biomedical areas. In these pages, we put together the most relevant information to remark how fruitful it can be to learn from Nature and to take advantage of the biochemical similarities (key protein structures and their regulation data on metabolic interplays and binding properties) to generate new hypothesis and develop different biomedical strategies based on biochemistry and molecular biology of these compounds.
authors.affiliation: medina@uma.es
authors.forename: Miguel Angel
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Medina
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Urdiales
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Caso
authors.forename: Francisco Javier
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Ramírez
authors.forename: Francisca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Jiménez
mesh_terms: D006631:Amine Oxidase (Copper-Containing) / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001142:Aromatic-L-Amino-Acid Decarboxylases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001679:Biogenic Amines / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D006632:Histamine / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008659:Metabolic Diseases / Q000378:metabolism; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D011073:Polyamines / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D014166:Transferases / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001679:Biogenic Amines; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins; D009696:Nucleic Acids; D011073:Polyamines; D006632:Histamine; D006631:Amine Oxidase (Copper-Containing); D014166:Transferases; D001142:Aromatic-L-Amino-Acid Decarboxylases