Altered cysteine metabolism, the microbiome and pathology

[Alchemica]

Another aspect that has improved is with my N-acetylcysteine. I've obviously had a beneficial microbiome shift - the level of hydrogen sulfide production that I used to get from it has resolved.

This is interesting, H2S is extremely toxic, it's also a highly important neuroprotective, cardioprotective, immune modulating gaseous mediator. It's possible my high cacao diet (which modulates another gaseous mediator, nitric oxide) has shifted the microbiome away, through prebiotic effects from eating up my sulfur containing amino acids and is allowing them to do their job for health.
 

H2S has rapid neurorestorative, protective, antidepressant effects, if it is generated in the brain from donors like cysteine appropriately. Boosting endogenous production of protective hydrogen sulfide via supplementation with N-acetylcysteine is a novel way to promote health on the systems level. If your gut bacteria are making it toxic to you, that might be a different story...

That's a rather interesting model for neurodevelopmental, mood and psychotic illness. If cysteine metabolism is impacted by the microbiome, not only do you get epigenetic methylation problems, dysfunctional crucial H2S CNS signaling including AMPA-mTOR-BDNF signalling, dysfunctional immunomodulation, anti-oxidant through glutathione/redox problems, major glutamate problems and functional connectivity disorders including via astrocytes, potentially elevated homocysteine and more. If I've had something screwing with my sulfur containing amino acids for nearly 30 years, no wonder I was getting so sick! I used to get really bad H2S-like gas from any protein...

This could also extend to epilepsy etc - L-cysteine sulfinic acid, an agonist at a phospholipase D-coupled (Group I) metabotropic receptor. protects against epileptiform discharges. These cysteine and metabolites crucially regulate brain activity and connectivity through multiple mechanisms. Depends on the gut bacteria what is formed... http://jb.asm.org/content/188/15/5561.full

N-acetylcysteine also tackles autism in animal models through mGluR2/3s, OCD through the cystine/glutamate exchange system, and addictions similarly through the glutamatergic projection from the prefrontal cortex to the nucleus accumbens, where in addiction there is insufficient for normal mGluR2/3 activation, thereby increasing PFC-NAc glutamate release probability.

When I used to take N-acetylcysteine, I got really odd LFT results...