News Food science Finish up your arginine Anthony King
Eating more arginine can improve sugar metabolism by stimulating an important gut hormone. This discovery comes from a Danish-US study, which suggests that dietary supplements or an arginine-based therapy can help patients with Type 2 diabetes. Arginine is an amino acid, a building block of
proteins, and is found in a variety of foods such as salmon, nuts, pork and poultry. It was already known to increase the secretion of insulin, a regulator of blood sugar levels, but the new study reveals a novel role for arginine in food causing the release of the gut hormone GLP-1 (glucagon- like peptide). In laboratory experiments, both lean and fat lab mice benefited from arginine supplements, with glucose metabolism improved by as much as 40% in both groups (Endocrinology: doi:10.1210/ en.2013-1529). ‘Several GLP-1 analogues are now approved
as drugs, which is helpful in diabetes, but if you could somehow increase the release of GLP-1 endogenously from the gut, by triggering its release via receptor activation or by giving arginine that in principle would be equally effective,’ says author Hans Bräuner-Osborne, molecular pharmacologist at the University of Copenhagen.k. Mice given arginine increased GLP-1 levels, but as yet the mechanism is unknown. A better understanding of how it works could lead to a more potent compound than arginine that could trigger the same effect. Moreover, GLP-1 leads to more insulin release but also signals feelings of satiety to the brain. ‘It affects the sensors in the body, it can lead to weight loss and improved glucose control. Both of those are very useful in diabetes treatment.’ says Hans Diabetic patients can already undergo surgery or take drugs to restore GLP-1 levels, according to obesity expert Carel le Roux of University College Dublin in Ireland. ‘These are safe options but have complications. If we could give patients the right
Process technology Grant to scale up acrylic acid Cynthia Challener
Following the start-up of its first commercial facility for the production of polypropylene carbonate (PPC) from carbon dioxide in February 2013, US chemical company Novomer recently ann-
ounced the receipt of a $5m US Department of
Energy grant – part of the Clean
Energy Manufacturing Initiative – for scale-up of its catalytic technology for the
production of acrylic acid from shale gas-based ethylene oxide and carbon
14 Chemistry&Industry • November 2013
monoxide. The $10bn acrylic acid market is
growing at 5-6%/year, creating the need for a new world-class manufacturing plant, typically 160,000t/year, according to Novomer. Major applications include superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) and acrylate-based polymers used in coatings and adhesives, as rheology modifiers and as detergents. ‘Acrylic acid is currently produced from propylene. The advent of shale gas has radically changed propylene pricing; as a result, we estimate that our process will provide cost savings of 20-40%. Both existing acrylic acid manufacturers that want to lower their costs and EO manufacturers that are looking to produce higher value-added downstream products are interested,’ says Michael Slowik, director of chemicals. The company expects to have a 2000t/ year pilot plant, hosted by a chemical partner, operational in 2015 and a world- scale facility constructed in 2017, which would be the first US acrylic acid plant built in 10 years, according to Slowik.
The chemical partner will help prove out Novomer’s technology, including a lab-achieved catalyst selectivity of 99+% and the recyclability of the homogeneous catalyst. Initial testing will begin with a 5 kg/day continuous laboratory unit. Selection of the best route to acrylic
acid will also be determined. The direct product of the reaction of EO and CO is propiolactone, which can be ring- opened to acrylic acid or polymerised to polypropiolactone (PPL). The PPL can then be degraded above 220°C to glacial acrylic acid – the starting material for SAPs.
weight. The combined processes would also increase the energy productivity for acrylic acid by 30-70%, according to the company.
to CO via an innovative, low-cost solid oxide electrolysis process. The acrylic acid produced using this CO and Novomer’s new technology would contain approximately 40% CO2
Novomer is also working with an industrial gas partner that is developing technology for the conversion of waste CO2
by
food supplements or tell them to eat more of this or less of that and show it makes their diabetes better that would be real advance.’ Modified versions of the peptide GLP-1, such as
Byetta and Victoza, are effective drugs for diabetes but need to be injected and are very expensive, notes Fiona Marshall of Heptares, a UK company investigating novel drug candidates for diabetes. Other diabetes drugs work by stopping the breakdown of GLP-1. The paper ‘does not identify a specific mechanism or receptor through which arginine is mediating this effect so the paper has stopped short of identifying a new target for drug discovery’, says Marshall. The Danish group now plans to investigate whether other amino acids might have similar effects, says Bräuner-Osborne. ‘Perhaps that is the reason why it is good to eat a diet containing more protein than fat and carbohydrate if you had weight loss and want to maintain it…There seems to be something magic about protein and we don’t really know the mechanism.’
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