Metabolism of dietary ODAP in humans may be responsible for the low incidence of neurolathyrism.
OBJECTIVE
The reasons for the very low incidence of the disease neurolathyrism in humans even after excessive consumption of the pulse, Lathyrus sativus, under severe drought and famine conditions, and its continued consumption by large populations during normal periods without any deleterious effects have been examined in the context of a possible metabolism or detoxification of beta-N-oxalyl-L-alpha, beta-diaminopropionic acid (ODAP), the major neurotoxic amino acid of L. sativus.


METHODS
ODAP in urine samples from 54 subjects habitually consuming the pulse and in three volunteers on an L. sativus diet was determined by the OPT method following clean up of the samples on an alumina column. Urinary oxalate was also determined in these individuals.


RESULTS
Twenty-five subjects showed no excretion of ODAP and it was only less than 0.7% of the dietary intake in the remaining 29 subjects. Urinary excretion of ODAP in three volunteers was also less than 1% with a peak excretion in the 4-h sample. The 4-h blood sample from one volunteer had a maximum ODAP concentration of 177 microM. The urinary oxalate content in the volunteers was nearly 3-fold higher compared to controls.


CONCLUSIONS
The low excretion of dietary ingested ODAP in humans is in sharp contrast to that seen in animals and indicates a metabolism or detoxification of ODAP which may be unique to humans and may explain the low incidence of neurolathyrism.
Department of Biochemistry, Osmania University, Hyderabad 500007, India.
M P
MP
Pratap Rudra
M Raghuveer
MR
Singh
M A
MA
Junaid
P
P
Jyothi
S L N
SL
Rao
D000599:Amino Acids, Diamino / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000097:blood / Q000493:pharmacokinetics* / Q000652:urine; D004032:Diet; D006801:Humans; D008658:Inactivation, Metabolic; D015994:Incidence; D007842:Lathyrism / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000652:urine; D027807:Lathyrus / Q000633:toxicity*; D009474:Neurons / Q000473:pathology; D010070:Oxalates / Q000652:urine
D000599:Amino Acids, Diamino; D010070:Oxalates; C100126:oxalyldiaminopropionic acid