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L-Lysine (Lys) is an
essential amino acid since it's not produced in the body and must be supplied
through the diet. It's one of the building blocks for protein, peptide and
non-peptide synthesis, and is thus found involved in several physiological
and biochemical processes. As a result, Lys deficiency was shown to affect
cell cycle, apoptosis, amino acid metabolism (1), and to even impair antibody
responses as well as cell-mediated immune cell functions (2). In addition,
and like other amino acids, Lys contributes to epigenetic and protein
regulations and immunosuppression ; its catabolism activation
generates acetyl-CoA which, for instance, promotes Wnt signaling and can
support tumor
growth (3).
Furthermore,
imbalance in circulating Lys levels can be observed in many conditions such
as i) inherited diseases on enzymes involved in Lys catabolism (e.g. glutaric aciduria type I
or antiquitin deficiency), ii) diabetes-dependent cardiovascular disease (4), as well as
iii) human
immunodeficiency viruses-1 infection (5).
Therefore, Lys
can serve as an easy-to-access surrogate marker to monitor and/or predict
pathophysiological situations. Various basic methods are available for Lys
determination, including colorimetric, radioisotope dilution,
chromatographic, fluorometric, and voltametric assays, which are
time-consuming and require highly skilled personnel. In order to provide an
accurate and easy-to-implement tool to evaluate Lys functions, we developed
and validated a novel ELISA kit (#IS-I-1400) for L-Lysine
quantitation in
plasma samples. The assay requires a sample volume as low as 20μL and is
characterized by a 13µM sensitivity.
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