Patterns of Tyrosine and Tryptophan Metabolites in Controls and Various Degenerative Disorders

Abstract

Over the last few years, we have been applying techniques for generating and analyzing complex patterns of several hundred small biological molecules to neurodegenerative disorders. The general hypothesis emerging from this work is that patterns of small molecular species are an operational expression of the genome. Under this hypothesis, we would argue that: (1) the underlying genetic makeup of an individual determining their variability in such features as morphology and patterns of enzymes will be reflected through these features in the levels and interrelationships of small molecular species such as transmitters, precursors, metabolites, cofactors; and (2) an individual with a particular degenerative or affective disorder will exhibit a pattern of small molecules that is uniquely different from both normals and other disorders.