Albumin is the most abundant plasma protein found in humans. One of the functions of serum albumin is that it is used in drug metabolism. This particular article focused on the metabolism of aspirin in which albumin is involved in. The first step in the metabolism of aspirin is that it transfers its acetyl group to a lysine residue on albumin. Then, the acetyl group is hydrolyzed to salicylic acid, which is the functional form of aspirin. The salicylic acid formed stays bound to the serum albumin. This article shows that albumin is a necessary protein in drug binding in humans.
Article 2:
This article focuses on the relevance of albumin in insulin dependent diabetes. The experiment documented the microalbumin presence in the urine of pediatric insulin dependent diabetics. Abnormal amounts of microalbumin in the urine of diabetics have been shown to be a high risk factor for neuropathy, retinopathy, stroke, and other major complications. Ninety-eight percent of the subject’s observed in this experiment showed abnormal urine microalbumin excretion. Some of the factors shown to raise the level of urine microalbumin excretion were an increase in blood glucose levels and high blood pressure. This article shows the importance of maintaining albumin levels in diabetics because elevated albumin levels leads to detrimental long term effects.
Article 3:
This article talks about the implications of albuminuria and kidney function and cardiovascular disease. Albuminuria is a condition in which there is albumin present in the urine, which shows that there is a problem in the kidneys. A high albumin ratio in the urine was shown to be correlated with a low glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in the kidneys. The experiment showed that the subjects that had a higher albumin ratio in their urine and a low eGFR showed a long term need for dialysis. The subjects in the study all had high cardiovascular risk, so a low eGFR or high urine albumin levels did not seem to lead to an increase in cardiovascular risk for these patients. This could be used in a clinical application, such that if albumin levels are detected to be abnormally high in a patient’s urine, this could indicate a functional problem in the patient’s kidneys.
