Skip to content
MS
unreviewed

Aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (DDC)

2 reactions · 2 pathways

Clinical / pharmacological. Peripheral inhibition by carbidopa allows levodopa CNS delivery

What it does, reaction by reaction

2 reactions

Catecholamine Synthesis Amino Acid & Nitrogen Metabolism · Cytosol + secretory vesicle

step 2 Irreversible/directional

L-DOPA -> dopamine + CO2

Converts L-DOPA into Dopamine CO2

Notes

Peripheral inhibition of DDC by carbidopa is what allows levodopa to reach the brain.

Serotonin & Melatonin Synthesis Amino Acid & Nitrogen Metabolism · Cytosol

step 2 Irreversible/directional

5-Hydroxytryptophan -> serotonin (5-HT) + CO2

Converts 5-Hydroxytryptophan into Serotonin (5-HT) CO2

Notes

Serotonin is degraded by MAO to 5-HIAA, the urinary marker of carcinoid syndrome.

Showing all 2 reactions.

What accelerates and inhibits it

Regulation is pathway-specific, so each context is listed separately

0 entries

No regulation recorded for this enzyme in the source documents.

Recent literature

Europe PMC · fetched just now · sorted by publication date

  1. 1
    Navigating the diagnostic 'gray zone': prospective evaluation of an integrated MRI-Biomarker model for renal allograft triage.

    Liao Z, Ma S, Liu Z, Tang H, Deng B, Zhang J, Yin T, Chen W, Darwish O, Wang Q, Chen G, Lee JM, Li Z. · 2026-06-17

    open access unreviewed
  2. 2
  3. 3
    Safety of COVID-19 mRNA-1273 booster doses in Asian populations: A literature review of post-marketing observational studies.

    Clarke C, Esposito D, Urdaneta V, Mukherjee P, Buttery AK. · 2026-05-19

    open access unreviewed
  4. 4
    <i>Limosilactobacillus reuteri</i> promotes melatonin release from human intestinal organoids via 5'ectonucleotidase activity.

    Forshee MD, Nachman EJ, Shenoy ER, Danhof HA, Ermann Lundberg L, Roos S, Britton RA. · 2026-05-18

    open access unreviewed
  5. 5
    Sex-based considerations in the choice for a TLR9 or TLR7/8 agonist to arm the sentinel lymph node in early-stage melanoma.

    Notohardjo JCL, Toffoli EC, Muijlwijk T, van den Hout MFCM, Kandiah V, Labots M, van de Ven R, van den Eertwe… · 2026-05-07

    open access unreviewed
  6. 6
    Glucagon-like peptide-1: a critical link between gut microbiota dysbiosis and degenerative musculoskeletal diseases.

    Yang W, Hao C, Wang N, Xie J, Zhou B, Yang Z, Zheng A, Wei J, Li C, Xie C, Li H, Lei G, Zeng C. · 2026-04-22

    open access unreviewed
  7. 7
    Engineering a heme-dependent tryptophan hydroxylase pathway in <i>E. coli</i> for enhanced melatonin production.

    Zhang L, Yin G, Pan S, Zheng X, Zhou S, Du G, Li J, Chen J, Xu R, Kang Z. · 2026-04-11

    open access unreviewed
  8. 8
  9. 9
    Mechanisms of tumor cell evasion from NK cell-mediated killing and advances in NK cell-based cancer immunotherapy.

    Zheng R, Wang Z, Zhang B, Li Y, Gao S, Guo Y, Meng D, Mu X, Shao L. · 2026-02-09

    cited 2× open access unreviewed
  10. 10
    DDVMM: A dual-branch pyramid model for mono-modal medical image registration.

    Zou M, Wu Y, Chen J, Liu Q. · 2026-06-15

    unreviewed

External claims. These come from an index outside this database and are not checked against it. Treat them as leads.