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Identifiers | |
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3D model (JSmol) | |
ChEBI | |
ChemSpider | |
MeSH | Thiamine+triphosphate |
PubChem CID | |
UNII | |
CompTox Dashboard (EPA) | |
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Properties | |
C12H19N4O10P3S | |
Molar mass | 504.288 |
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa). |
Thiamine triphosphate (ThTP) is a biomolecule found in most organisms including bacteria, fungi, plants and animals. [1] Chemically, it is the triphosphate derivative of the vitamin thiamine.
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. [1] [3] Low or absent levels of thiamine triphosphate have been found in Leigh's disease. [4] [5]
In E. coli , ThTP is accumulated in the presence of glucose during amino acid starvation. [1] [3] On the other hand, suppression of the carbon source leads to the accumulation, of adenosine thiamine triphosphate (AThTP).
It has been shown that in brain ThTP is synthesized in mitochondria by a chemiosmotic mechanism, perhaps similar to ATP synthase. [6] In mammals, ThTP is hydrolyzed to thiamine pyrophosphate (ThDP) by a specific thiamine-triphosphatase. [3] [7] It can also be converted into ThDP by thiamine-diphosphate kinase.
Thiamine triphosphate (ThTP) was chemically synthesized in 1948 at a time when the only organic triphosphate known was ATP. [8] The first claim of the existence of ThTP in living organisms was made in rat liver, [9] followed by baker’s yeast. [10] Its presence was later confirmed in rat tissues [11] and in plants germs, but not in seeds, where thiamine was essentially unphosphorylated. [12] 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 than 10% of total thiamine in animal tissues. [13]