Advanced glycation

摘要

Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) are the end result of a chain of chemical reactions involving an initial glycation reaction. AGEs are formed endogenously when the carbonyl groups of reducing sugars nonenzymatically react with the free amino groups on proteins. Intermediate products in the formation of an AGE are known as Amadori, Schiff base and Maillard products, named after the researchers who first described them. The glycation reaction is divided into early and advanced phase reactions: the former covers the reaction progression up to the Amadori rearrangement and the latter covers the reaction through the subsequent alterations of oxidation, dehydration, condensation, and so on, eventually generating AGEs. AGEs are generated in vivo as anormal consequence of metabolism, but their formation is accelerated during ageing and ageing-related diseases. AGEs are well known for their formation in diabetes, but also occur in many other disease processes. Glycation has been implicated as a strong contributor to many progres-sive diseases of ageing, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative conditions. The clinical implication of glycation in relation to metabolic disorders is slowly emerging with the advancements in analytical technologies, includingmass spectrometry. The evolving situation is an excellent example for 'chemical biology meeting medicine' and this opens up vast avenues and opportunities for multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary research collaboration among biologists, chemists, nutritionists, physician scientists and many others. To explore and stimulate the above research collaboration in the 'Year of innovation', a one-day seminar was organized recently.