Background
Carbamoyl phosphate synthetase (CPS) deficiency is a urea cycle defect that results from a deficiency in an enzyme that mediates the normal path for incorporation of ammonia. CPS is derived from catabolism of amino acids into a 1-carbon compound (H2 N-CO-PO32 -), in which the carbon atom is derived from bicarbonate. The process is exclusively mitochondrial and requires the expenditure of one ATP molecule. See the image below.
Compounds comprising the urea cycle are numbered sequentially, beginning with carbamyl phosphate (1). At this step, the first waste nitrogen is incorporated into the cycle; at this step, N-acetylglutamate exerts its regulatory control on the mediating enzyme, carbamyl phosphate synthetase (CPS). Compound 2 is citrulline, the product of condensation between carbamyl phosphate (1) and ornithine (8); the mediating enzyme is ornithine transcarbamylase. Compound 3 is aspartic acid, which is combined with citrulline to form argininosuccinic acid (ASA) (4); the reaction is mediated by ASA synthetase. Compound 5 is fumaric acid generated in the reaction that converts ASA to arginine (6), which is mediated by ASA lyase.