nutrients Review d-amino Acids in Health and Disease: A Focus on Cancer Jacco J.A.J. Bastings 1,2, Hans M. van Eijk 1, Steven W. Olde Damink 1,3 and Sander S. Rensen 1,* 1 Department of Surgery, NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands;
[email protected] (J.J.A.J.B.);
[email protected] (H.M.v.E.);
[email protected] (S.W.O.D.) 2 Department of Human Biology, NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands 3 Department of General, Visceral and Transplantation Surgery, RWTH University Hospital Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 29 July 2019; Accepted: 9 September 2019; Published: 12 September 2019 Abstract: d-amino acids, the enantiomeric counterparts of l-amino acids, were long considered to be non-functional or not even present in living organisms. Nowadays, d-amino acids are acknowledged to play important roles in numerous physiological processes in the human body. The most commonly studied link between d-amino acids and human physiology concerns the contribution of d-serine and d-aspartate to neurotransmission. These d-amino acids and several others have also been implicated in regulating innate immunity and gut barrier function. Importantly, the presence of certain d-amino acids in the human body has been linked to several diseases including schizophrenia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and age-related disorders such as cataract and atherosclerosis. Furthermore, increasing evidence supports a role for d-amino acids in the development, pathophysiology, and treatment of cancer.