Currently in school I am studying the topic of Inflammatory Arthritis with a focus on Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus which are autoimmune diseases. When I was researching the paleo diet long ago, lectins particularly scared me. Loren Cordain wrote many papers on the danger of lectin (1,2) especially its possible involvement in autoimmune diseases. Thus I have since relied on cooking any form of legume very very thoroughly at low temperatures (since time kinetic is usually linear and temperature is squared, at a lower temperature you have to cook much much longer then at a higher temperature) (3). I have thought about just relying on meat, the amino acid composition of animal products do not appeal to me.
Anyway, in my search I found (4) which was quite an interesting read (it compares food-allergies to self-allergies), it specifically focused on peanuts. I decided to look at the nutritional composition of peanuts and found that not only was it high in lectin, it was also high in arginine (like many other seed products (5)). L-arginine is an amino acid that is involved in many processes, but the one I am interested in is the NO-pathway, especially its relationship to autoimmune diseases (6), and indeed there may be a relationship (7). This could be either due to nitrosamine formation or by the pathway itself inside Tcells (8).
In a review paper on Type 1 Diabetics (an autoimmune disorder) (9). The authors postulate that exercise may be able to shift the balance away from l-arginine metabolism into NO, through a sympathetic response. In mice it turns out that arginase plays a large role in autoimmune encephalitis (10). In mice it seems that the arginine to citrulline pathway plays a role in the pathogenesis of Lupus (11). And unknown to me before l-arginine plays an important role in immunodevelopment (12). Thus maybe by oversupplementing with arginine, or consuming too much may lead to overstimulations (e.g. autoimmunity). However recently it seems that RA seems to be blamed on post-translational modification of arginine into citrulline (13).
On a somewhat related note, arginine restriction may play an important role in kidney repair and damage (14,15).
More related to arginine is its non-protein amino acid cousin, L-canavanine, which is found in alfalfa sprouts. Recently it has become a health food and people buy it and put it into everything they eat. Well guess what it may cause lupus! (16,17,18). In a human study those consuming alfalfa developed autoimmune anemia (19).
Based on this preliminary overview (I'm going to read more depth into it later), I'm going to stop my l-arginine supplementation, and continue my avoidance of lectins.
HAS anyone else done research on this topic?
References
1. World Rev Nutr Diet. 1999;84:19-73.Cereal grains: humanity's double-edged sword.Cordain L.
2. Br J Nutr. 2000 Mar;83(3):207-17.Modulation of immune function by dietary lectins in rheumatoid arthritis.Cordain L, Toohey L, Smith MJ, Hickey MS.
3. DHURANDHAR, N. and CHANG, K. (1990), Effect of Cooking on Firmness, Trypsin Inhibitors, Lectins and Cystine/Cysteine content of Navy and Red Kidney Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). Journal of Food Science, 55: 470–474. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2621.1990.tb06789.x
4. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep. 2011 Aug;11(4):334-9.Immunologic similarities between selected autoimmune diseases and peanut allergy: possible new therapeutic approaches.Martucci MA, Dreskin SC.
5. http://www.dietaryfi...ginine-high.php
6. N Engl J Med. 1993 Dec 30;329(27):2002-12.The L-arginine-nitric oxide pathway.Moncada S, Higgs A.
7. J Exp Med. 1994 Feb 1;179(2):651-60.The role of nitric oxide in the pathogenesis of spontaneous murine autoimmune disease: increased nitric oxide production and nitric oxide synthase expression in MRL-lpr/lpr mice, and reduction of spontaneous glomerulonephritis and arthritis by orally administered NG-monomethyl-L-arginine.Weinberg JB, Granger DL, Pisetsky DS, Seldin MF, Misukonis MA, Mason SN, Pippen AM, Ruiz P, Wood ER, Gilkeson GS.
8. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2009 Jun 1;237(2):188-95. Epub 2009 Mar 28.Increased nitration and carbonylation of proteins in MRL+/+ mice exposed to trichloroethene: potential role of protein oxidation in autoimmunity.Wang G, Wang J, Ma H, Khan MF.
9. Cell Biochem Funct. 2008 Jun;26(4):406-33.Type 1 diabetes: can exercise impair the autoimmune event? The L-arginine/glutamine coupling hypothesis.Krause Mda S, de Bittencourt PI Jr.
10. Immunology. 2003 Sep;110(1):141-8.Arginase and autoimmune inflammation in the central nervous system.Xu L, Hilliard B, Carmody RJ, Tsabary G, Shin H, Christianson DW, Chen YH.
11. Int Immunol. 1990;2(11):1033-8.Inherited hyperactivation of L-arginine synthesis in gamma + B lymphocytes of systemic autoimmune MRL mice.Sugimura K, Wada Y, Kimura T, Ohno T, Kobayashi S, Azuma I.
12. J Clin Invest. 2002 Nov;110(10):1539-48.Arginine deficiency affects early B cell maturation and lymphoid organ development in transgenic mice.de Jonge WJ, Kwikkers KL, te Velde AA, van Deventer SJ, Nolte MA, Mebius RE, Ruijter JM, Lamers MC, Lamers WH.
13. Autoimmun Rev. 2005 Nov;4(8):561-4.The immune response to citrullinated antigens in autoimmune diseases.Migliorini P, Pratesi F, Tommasi C, Anzilotti C.
14. Kidney Int. 1997 May;51(5):1481-6.Angiotensin II and L-arginine in tissue fibrosis: more than blood pressure.Peters H, Noble NA.
15. Kidney Int. 2003 Apr;63(4):1382-92.L-arginine supplementation accelerates renal fibrosis and shortens life span in experimental lupus nephritis.Peters H, Border WA, Rückert M, Krämer S, Neumayer HH, Noble NA.
16. Science. 1982 Apr 23;216(4544):415-7.Systemic lupus erythematosus-like syndrome in monkeys fed alfalfa sprouts: role of a nonprotein amino acid.Malinow MR, Bardana EJ Jr, Pirofsky B, Craig S, McLaughlin P.
17. Autoimmun Rev. 2006 Jul;5(6):429-35. Epub 2005 Dec 29.Role of non-protein amino acid L-canavanine in autoimmunity.Akaogi J, Barker T, Kuroda Y, Nacionales DC, Yamasaki Y, Stevens BR, Reeves WH, Satoh M.
18. Semin Arthritis Rheum. 1985 Aug;15(1):61-9.The role of diet in animal models of systemic lupus erythematosus: possible implications for human lupus.Corman LC.
19. Rheum Dis Clin North Am. 1991 May;17(2):323-32.Dietary amino acid-induced systemic lupus erythematosus.Montanaro A, Bardana EJ Jr.
http://hanswuhealth....d-arginine.html
