Histamine has important roles in human physiology as both a hormone and a neurotransmitter. As a hormone, it is involved in the inflammatory response and itching. It regulates physiological functions in the gut and acts on the brain, spinal cord, and uterus. As a neurotransmitter, histamine promotes arousal and regulates appetite and the sleep-wake cycle. It also affects vasodilation, fluid production in tissues like the nose and eyes, gastric acid secretion, sexual function, and immune responses.
HNMT is the only enzyme in the human body responsible for metabolizing histamine within the CNS, playing a crucial role in brain function.
HNMT plays a crucial role in maintaining the proper balance of histamine in the human body. HNMT is responsible for the breakdown and metabolism of histamine, converting it into an inactive metabolite, N-methylhistamine, which inhibits HNMT gene expression in a negative feedback loop. By metabolizing histamine, HNMT helps prevent excessive levels of histamine from accumulating in various tissues and organs. This enzymatic activity ensures that histamine remains at appropriate levels to carry out its physiological functions without causing unwanted effects or triggering allergic reactions. In the central nervous system, HNMT plays an essential role in degrading histamine, where it acts as a neurotransmitter, since HNMT is the only enzyme in the body that can metabolize histamine in the CNS, ending its neurotransmitter activity.
HNMT also plays a role in the airway response to harmful particles, which is the body's physiological reaction to immune allergens, bacteria, or viruses in the respiratory system. Histamine is stored in granules in mast cells, basophils, and in the synaptic vesicles of histaminergic neurons of the airways. When exposed to immune allergens or harmful particles, histamine is released from these storage granules and quickly diffuses into the surrounding tissues. However, the released histamine needs to be rapidly deactivated for proper regulation, which is a function of HNMT.