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'Thiamine triphosphate' (ThTP) is found in most organisms, bacteria, fungi, plants and animals.^[1]

Contents

Function

History

References

Function

It has been proposed that ThTP has a specific role in nerve excitability^[2] but this has never been confirmed and recent results suggest that ThTP probably plays a role in cell energy metabolism.^{[3] [4]} Moreover some results suggesting that ThTP deficiency is responsible for subacute necrotizing encephalopathy or Leigh's disease have not been confirmed. ^[5]
In ''E. coli'', ThTP is accumulated in the presence of glucose during amino acid starvation.^{[3] [7]} On the other hand, suppression of the carbon source leads to the accumulation, of adenosine thiamine triphosphate (AThTP).
In mammals, ThTP is hydrolyzed by a specific thiamine triphosphatase.^[8]

History

Thiamine triphosphate (ThTP) was chemically synthesized in 1948 at a time when the only organic triphosphate known was ATP.^[9]
The first claim of the existence of ThTP in living organisms was made in rat liver,^[10] followed by baker’s yeast.^[11]
Its presence was later confirmed in rat tissues^[12] and in plants germs, but not in seeds, where thiamine was essentially unphosphorylated.^[13]
In all those studies, ThTP was separated from other thiamine derivatives using a paper chromatographic method, followed by oxidation in fluorescent thiochrome compounds with ferricyanide in alkaline solution.
This method is at best semi-quantitative, and the development of liquid chromatographic methods suggested that ThTP represents far less that 10 % of total thiamine in animal tissues^[14] and bacteria.^[15]

References

1. Makarchikov AF, Lakaye B, Gulyai IE, Czerniecki J, Coumans B, Wins P, Grisar T & Bettendorff L. (2003) Thiamine triphosphate and thiamine triphosphatase activities: from bacteria to mammals. ''Cell Mol Life Sci'' 60(7):1477-1488.
2. Matsuda T & Cooper JR. (1981) Thiamine as an integral component of brain synaptosomal membranes. ''Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A'' 78(9):5886-5889.
3.
4. Lakaye B, Wirtzfeld B, Wins P, Grisar T & Bettendorff L. (2004) Thiamine triphosphate, a new signal required for optimal growth of Escherichia coli during amino acid starvation. ''J Biol Chem'' 279(17):17142-17147.
5. Cooper JR, Itokawa Y & Pincus JH. (1969) Thiamine triphosphate deficiency in subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy. ''Science'' 164(875):74-75.
6.
7.
8. Lakaye B., Makarchikov A.F., Fernandes Antunes A., Zorzi W., Coumans B., De Pauw E., Wins P., Grisar T. & Bettendorff L. (2002) Molecular characterization of a specific thiamine triphosphatase widely distributed in mammalian tissues. ''J Biol Chem'' 277: 13771-13777.
9. Velluz et al. 1948
10. Rossi-Fanelli et al. 1952
11. Kiessling 1953
12. Greiling and Kiesow 1958
13. Yusa 1961
14. Rindi and Giuseppe 1961
15. Rossi-Fanelli et al. 1961