Creatine is an amino acid that occurs in vertebrate tissues and in urine. It is synthesized mainly in the liver from three different amino acids: arginine, glycine, and methionine. In skeletal muscles, which store 95% of it, creatine generally occurs as phosphocreatine. The rest is stored in the brain, heart, and testes. Creatine functions as part of the cell's energy shuttle. It is excreted as creatinine in the urine.

Inosine is a naturally occurring nucleoside which serves as an intermediate in purine metabolism. The metabolism of purines in humans generates a potent antioxidant compound, uric acid, which is known to be a natural scavenger of both oxygen and nitrogen reactive species as well as having chelator properties. Inosine, as a precursor of uric acid, was shown to have neuroprotective effect in vitro and is being tested in phase III of clinical trials for the treatment of Parkinson disease. The treatment with inosine is belived to prevent or slow the disease.

Creatinine is a product of metabolism of creatine phosphate, a molecule that serves as a rapidly mobilizable reserve of a brain and skeletal muscle. Creatinine is excreted by kidneys with little or no reabsorption. Serum creatinine is the most commonly used indicator of renal function.

HYDROXYPROLINE, a hydroxylated form of the imino acid proline, is a major component of the protein collagen. For this reason, HYDROXYPROLINE content in biological fluids is used as a parameter of collagen catabolism, especially bone resorption or tissue degradation. A deficiency in ascorbic acid can result in impaired HYDROXYPROLINE formation.

Sarcosine, also known as N-methylglycine, is a metabolite of glycine. It shares properties with both glycine and D-serine, though its effects are weaker. Sarcosine supplementation can be used to alleviate symptoms of depression and schizophrenia, or improve cognition. It is absorbed more reliably by the body than D-serine, which can also treat similar conditions. Sarcosine is being investigated for its connection to prostate cancer. It may be a biomarker for prostate cancer, which means that if sarcosine levels in the blood are higher than normal, it could be an indicator of prostate cancer. This doesn’t mean that sarcosine itself causes cancer. More research is needed to confirm this relationship. Sarcosine’s main mechanism involves inhibiting a transporter, called GlyT1, which takes up glycine and D-serine into cells. This increases the levels of glycine and D-serine in the body and increases their effects. Sarcosine, a glycine transporter type 1 inhibitor and an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor co-agonist at the glycine binding site, potentiates NMDA receptor function. Sarcosine is an inhibitory glycine receptor agonist.

Asparagine is a non-essential amino acid, which is synthesized in the human body from L-aspartate by Asparagine synthetase. Asparagine is required for the synthesis of many important cellular proteins in normal human cells. Many tumor cells do not have this capacity, due to a lack of the enzyme L-asparagine synthetase, and therefore require an exogenous supply of the amino acid. This amino acid participates in the functions of the brain and nervous system. Asparagine may come from food or be taken as a dietary supplement.

CTI-01 (ethyl pyruvate) is an investigational anti-inflammatory agent for the treatment of critical inflammatory conditions. CTI-01 was developed by Critical Therapeutics as a stable prodrug of pyruvate, a potent antioxidant, and a free radical scavenger. The drug showed an anti-inflammatory and tissue protection activity in animal models of pancreatitis, ischemia-reperfusion injury, sepsis, renal injury, and endotoxemia. CTI-01 was investigated in phase 2 clinical trials on patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass, but despite positive results in animal models, administration of EP does not appear to confer any benefit to cardiac surgical patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass. Besides clinical applications, ethyl pyruvate is long used as an additive to pharmaceutical preparations and foods, including candy, beverages, and baked goods. It is generally recognized as safe by the FDA.

Taurine is a semi-essential amino acid and is not incorporated into proteins. Taurine is considered conditionally essential because it cannot be synthesized by infants younger than 4-6 weeks, and it may not be adequately synthesized in patients receiving long-term parenteral nutrition and patients with short-term hypermetabolic conditions. In mammalian tissues, taurine is ubiquitous and is the most abundant free amino acid in the heart, retina, skeletal muscle, brain, and leukocytes. Taurin occurs naturally in fish and meat. The mean daily intake from omnivore diets was determined to be around 58 mg. Taurine is a component of energy drinks, with many contain 1000 mg per serving. In medicine, taurine supplementation demonstrated efficacy in relieving symptoms of heart failure, hepatitis, hypertension and psychotic disorder. Taurine exerts many physiological functions, including membrane stabilization, osmoregulation and cytoprotective effects, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions as well as modulation of intracellular calcium concentration and ion channel function. In addition taurine may control muscle metabolism and gene expression, through yet unclear mechanisms. The cellular and biochemical mechanisms mediating the actions of taurine are not fully known.

Monoethanolamine is both a primary amine and a primary alcohol. It is an olamine derivative. Monoethanolamine occurs in every cell in the human body as the head group of Phosphatidylethanolamine. Monoethanolamine is a component of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins, which are essential for viability. Other sources of monoethanolamine or phosphoethanolamine in the human body are the degradation of sphingosine phosphate by sphingosine phosphate lyase and the degradation of the endocannabinoid anandamide by the fatty acid amine hydrolase. Monoethanolamine stimulates the rapid growth of mammalian cells in culture. Monoethanolamine has a cardioprotective role against ischemia/reperfusion injury via activation of the transcription factor STAT-3. Monoethanolamine is a chemical intermediate in the manufacture of cosmetics, surface-active agents, emulsifiers, pharmaceuticals, and plasticizing agents.

Adenine is a nucleobase (a purine derivative). Its derivatives have a variety of roles in biochemistry including cellular respiration, in the form of both the energy-rich adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and the cofactors nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD). It also has functions in protein synthesis and as a chemical component of DNA and RNA. The shape of adenine is complementary to either thymine in DNA or uracil in RNA