Pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) is the active form of vitamin B6 and acts as a cofactor for enzymes. PLP is essential for transamination reactions, macronutrient metabolism, neurotransmitter synthesis, gene expression, and gluconeogenesis. It is the most functional form of vitamin B6 and is involved in over 140 enzymatic reactions.
Pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) is the active form of vitamin B6. It is also known as pyridoxal-5-phosphate or P5P. This phosphate is a combination of pyridoxal, pyridoxamine, and pyridoxine, which are natural forms of vitamin B6. PLP is not a protein, but acts as a cofactor for a number of enzymes and groups of proteins. A cofactor, also known as a prosthetic group, is a chemical compound that is attached to and required for a protein to function.
One of the main functions of pyridoxal phosphate is as a coenzyme in transamination reactions. Transamination is a key process in the formation of non-essential amino acids, and it would not be possible without the presence of PLP. This reaction is considered kinetically perfect, which means that every time it can happen, it does. These types of reactions are rare, and some show kinetics that are faster than the rate of diffusion, which should be chemically impossible. Speculation about the mechanism by which this process operates so efficiently includes dipole electric fields and quantum mechanical proton tunneling.
Vitamin B6 is part of the B complex group of vitamins and is soluble in water. It was first isolated in the 1930s in rats undergoing nutrition studies. In 1934, the Hungarian physician Paul Gyorgy discovered that this same compound was capable of alleviating skin diseases in rats, and named it vitamin B6. Over the next ten years, vitamin B6 was isolated from rice bran; the three phosphate precursor forms of pyridoxal were discovered; and vitamin B6 received the name of pyridoxine.
PLP is essential in a wide variety of enzymatic activities. The British Enzyme Commission (EC) has documented more than 140 enzymatic reactions that depend on pyridoxal phosphate to function. This is equal to about 4% of all known enzymatic reactions.
In all, there are seven known varieties of vitamin B6, but only PLP is metabolically active. However, all of them can be converted to each other, except 4-pyridoxic acid. Once this version of the vitamin is formed, it is excreted in the urine.
Pyridoxal phosphate is also involved in macronutrient metabolism, neurotransmitter synthesis, and gene expression. Additionally, it also plays a role in gluconeogenesis (GNG), which is one of the two processes the human body uses to maintain glucose levels in the body. GNG is a metabolic pathway, and PLP reactions in the body provide the necessary amino acids for the pathway to generate glucose. This form of vitamin B6 is one of the most functional and highly used in the human body.
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