Glycine paired with NAC to raise glutathione
A 2016 patent publication from Pharmaplan LLC and Baylor College of Medicine describes glycine paired with N-acetylcysteine as a precursor strategy to raise intracellular glutathione levels.
Glycine is a simple amino acid and a required substrate for glutathione synthesis. A 2016 patent publication, WO2016191468A1 (assigned to Pharmaplan LLC and Baylor College of Medicine), describes a precursor strategy to raise intracellular glutathione by combining glycine with N-acetylcysteine (NAC).
The publication claims lower C-reactive protein, improved mitochondrial fuel oxidation, and gains in muscle mass, strength, and function in older HIV patients. It also reports data on mouse lifespan extension when glycine and NAC were added to the diet. The available material does not specify doses, study duration, or sample sizes. It is unclear which claims rest on human clinical data, which on animal experiments, and which are patent assertions. The independent effect of glycine without NAC is not established here.
Google Patents lists the PCT (international patent application) status as ceased, with the note that this is not a legal conclusion.
Glycine in the database · WO2016191468A1, full text
Sources
[1] Benefits of supplementation with n-acetylcysteine and glycine to ...
The edge is mechanistically precise: the patent places glycine in a paired-precursor role for glutathione, which is a meaningful distinction from its common standalone reputation as a collagen amino acid or sleep aid. The connection is well-documented by the source and worth surfacing because the term Glycine has many neighbours in the graph but this patent grounds one specific biochemical function.