Since Dr Peter Koeppel, one of the leading experts on immunology and biochemistry at a leading Swiss pharmaceutical company released a paper on the use of nucleotides and RNA for human health applications. Much information has been sought regarding these valuable building blocks.

In part one of this series we will explain what a nucleotide is and how it links in very closely with our DNA. The beneficial implications of supplementing the daily diet with these naturally derived conditionally essential dietary building blocks, that are know as nucleotides will be explained in part 2

Where do nucleotides come from?

As any good nutriontist will tell you, any thing that the human body needs can be obtained from food. Foods that are naturally high in nucleotides are listed below.

" Liver
" Tripe
" Lean Meat
" Fish
" Mushrooms
" Fungi
" Yeast extract

However to boost your immune system from nucleotides we must take them in a more concentrated form, this will be covered in more depth in the next article.

Part 1. Understanding Nucleotides and DNA

Dr Koeppel states that nucleotides are the building blocks that are necessary for making new DNA and RNA.To help us understand this better; we need to think back to high school when we learned about the double-helix of DNA. Remember the spiral-appearing ladder with the different colored rungs? That is a model of the DNA that makes up the genes and chromosomes found in us all. DNA is a very large molecule, and the rungs of the DNA ladder are made of a combination of two different nucleotides. The nucleotides are molecules, called guanosine and cytosine, that pair up together, or adenosine and thymidine, which also pair up together. Adenosine and guanosine are called purines. Cytosine, thymidine and uradine are called pyrimidines. RNA is similar to DNA, except that the molecule uradine replaces thymine in that pair, and RNA is an intermediary between DNA and protein. A gene is a discrete sequence of DNA nucleotides, and genes are what make up our chromosomes. So, it makes sense that genes are made of DNA.

While all of this sounds very technical, what you need to understand is that nucleotides are molecules that are essential to the creation of new DNA and RNA molecules which are then used by new cells of all kinds. This is important because nucleotides, either by themselves, or in combination with other molecules, are involved in almost all activities of the cell (and therefore, the body).

What is DNA in layman's terms?

Deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, which makes up the genetic material in cells, is comprised of units called nucleotides.

Conclusion

Nucleotides can be simply described as the nutritional building blocks of new cells. There are 5 key nucleotides, which form the crucial building blocks of DNA and RNA, and are therefore essential for ongoing new cell production and system repair.

In part 2, we are going to explain how nucleotides are involved in many of our body's vital functions, and more importantly how by supplementing our diet with nucleotides we can help to boost our immune systems

Copyright 2005 David McEvoy