Ketosis and brain handling of glutamate, glutamine, and GABA
Marc Yudkoff, Yevgeny Daikhin, Oksana Horyn, Ilana Nissim, Itzhak Nissim, Marc Yudkoff, Yevgeny Daikhin, Oksana Horyn, Ilana Nissim, Itzhak Nissim
Abstract
We hypothesize that one mechanism of the anti-epileptic effect of the ketogenic diet is to alter brain handling of glutamate. According to this formulation, in ketotic brain astrocyte metabolism is more active, resulting in enhanced conversion of glutamate to glutamine. This allows for: (a) more efficient removal of glutamate, the most important excitatory neurotransmitter; and (b) more efficient conversion of glutamine to GABA, the major inhibitory neurotransmitter.
Conflict of interest statement
Disclosures:
The authors have read the journal’s policy on ethical publishing and agree that this article is consistent with those guidelines.
The authors of this article disclose that there are no conflicts of interest
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Source: PubMed