Glutamate (neurotransmitter)
Glutamate is a major constituent of a wide variety of proteins; consequently it is one of the most abundant amino acids in the human body. Under ordinary conditions enough is obtained from the diet that there is no need for any to be synthesized. Nevertheless, glutamate is formally classified as a non-essential amino acid, because it can be synthesized from alpha-Ketoglutaric acid, which is produced as part of the citric acid cycle by a series of reactions whose starting point is citrate. Glutamate cannot cross the blood-brain barrier unassisted, but it is actively transported into the nervous system by a high affinity transport system, which maintains its concentration in brain fluids at a fairly constant level.
Arginine
Arginine is a conditionally essential amino acid in humans and rodents, as it may be required depending on the health status or lifecycle of the individual. For example, while healthy adults can supply their own requirement for arginine, immature and rapidly growing individuals require arginine in their diet, and it is also essential under physiological stress, for example during recovery from burns, injury, and sepsis, or when the small intestine and kidneys, which are the major sites of arginine biosynthesis, have been damaged. It is, however, an essential amino acid for birds, as they do not have a urea cycle. For some carnivores, for example cats, dogs and ferrets, arginine is essential, because after a meal, their highly efficient protein catabolism produces large quantities of ammonia which need to be processed through the urea cycle, and if not enough arginine is present, the resulting ammonia toxicity can be lethal. This is not a problem in practice, because meat contains sufficient arginine to avoid this situation.