A review of phylogenetic and metabolic relationships between the acylamino acids, N-acetyl-L-aspartic acid and N-acetyl-L-histidine, in the vertebrate nervous system.

N-Acetyl-L-histidine (NAH) and N-acetyl-L-aspartic acid (NAA) are major constituents of vertebrate brain and eye with distinct phylogenetic distributions. They are characterized by high tissue concentrations, high tissue/extracellular fluid gradients, and a continuous regulated efflux into the extracellular fluid. As a result of parallel investigations over the past three decades, evidence has accumulated that suggests that the metabolism of NAA in the CNS of both homeothermic and poikilothermic vertebrates and the metabolism of NAH in the CNS of poikilothermic vertebrates are related. Tissue distribution and concentrations are similar, as well as timing of appearance during embryological development and their synthetic and degradative biochemistry. Both amino acids appear to be involved in a rapid tissue-to-fluid-space cycling phenomenon across a membrane. Evidence accumulating for each amino acid suggests a dynamic and important role in the CNS and the eye of vertebrates. A genetic disease in humans, Canavan's disease, is associated with NAA aciduria and aspartoacylase deficiency with concomitant accumulation of NAA and a spongy degeneration of the brain. In this article, evidence linking NAA and NAH metabolism is reviewed, and the hypothesis that NAA and NAH complement each other and are metabolic analogues involved with membrane transport is developed. Their enzyme systems also appear to exhibit plasticity in relation to osmoregulatory forces on an evolutionary time scale, with an apparent interface at the fish-tetrapod boundary.