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. 2021 Oct 6;12:690942. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.690942

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Copyright © 2021 Boukerb, Cambronel, Rodrigues, Mesguida, Knowlton, Feuilloley, Zommiti and Connil.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Pathway of epinephrine and norepinephrine biosynthesis. Synthesis of catecholamines starts with conversion of L-tyrosine to L-dopa by tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). Then, L-dopa is processed to dopamine by L-aromatic amino acid decarboxylase (AADC), from where norepinephrine is formed by dopamine-β-hydroxylase (DβH). Finally, epinephrine is synthesized by addition of a methyl group to norepinephrine by phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase (PNMT). In mammals, catecholamines are synthesized from L-Dopa, obtained from dietary sources (the amino acids tyrosine and phenylalanine).