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PQQ
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Issue Date: Aug 31, 2003
First vitamin found in 55 years?
japanese researchers have unravelled the workings of the biochemical compound, pyrroloquinoline quinone (pqq), thus qualifying it to be the first vitamin to be discovered in the last 55 years. The last vitamin discovered was cyanocobalamin (also known as b12).
pqq was isolated from a bacterium in 1979 by researchers from the Texas University, usa. But scientists did not know it was connected with which enzyme, preventing pqq from being considered as a vitamin.
Vitamins are organic substances essential for good health and growth. They must be ingested through food or vitamin pills because human body is unable to make them. The exception is vitamin d, which our bodies produce when exposed to sunlight.
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In a paper in a recent issue of the journal Nature, Takaoki Kasahara and Tadafumi Kato from the Brain Science Institute, Japan, reported that they have found a gene that encodes for a pqq-binding enzyme for the first time in any mammal. Also, they established that pqq is vital for the metabolism of lysine, an essential amino acid. Kasahara and colleagues fed mice with a pqq-deficient diet only to notice several abnormalities; they grew slowly, had fragile skin and showed poor reproductive performance. However, more research is required to establish similar effects on humans. Like vitamin b2 (riboflavin) and vitamin b3 (Niacin), pqq plays a vital role in oxidation-reduction reactions associated with energy transfer in cells. Since the molecular nature and function of pqq are quite similar to many others in the vitamin b group, it should be considered as a member of the vitamin b family. At present there are eight vitamins in the b group.
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