<ul>
<li>As we are moving past the <em>antibiotic</em> era due to rapid bacterial resistance, we need a new class of drugs to treat bacterial infections.</li>
<li>Antivitamins aren’t as well known as antibiotics, but were identified way back in 1930 by Sir Edward Mellenby, and were called ‘toxamins’. </li>
<li>Antivitamins disrupt the vitamins in a cell from functioning.</li>
</ul>

Antivitamins

Health

<p>Antivitamins are produced naturally as a way for a bacterial cell to kill another bacterial cell. The complex and important procedure is done in a seemingly hidden and mysterious way, with just one atom interrupting a complex chain of protons.</p>
<p><strong>New research indicates that there is no harm to humans, and antivitamins can be configured to target pathogens without any side effects.</strong></p>

Bacterial Cell Killers

<div dir="ltr">
    <h2 dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">German researchers have just solved the mystery of how these substances work.</p></h2>
</div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">
            
        </div></div><span dir="ltr">24 August, 2020</span></div><img alt="Meet antivitamins. They may replace your antibiotics one day" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3NzgwNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTE2NjU3NX0.W8k2mVMNAVoUJR3x1EYHq1DX8cOeckwC_AzbK_QV2Do/img.jpg?width=1245&amp;coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0&amp;height=700" width="703" height="395"><div dir="ltr">
        Image source: <a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/g/lightspring" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow" dir="ltr">Lightspring</a>/Shutterstock
    </div><UL><LI>As pathogens' resistance grows, scientists are searching for a class of drugs that could replace antibiotics.</LI><LI>Antivitamins that switch off vitamins in bacteria are being investigated.</LI><LI>Scientists have been struggling to understand how naturally occurring antivitamins do what they do.</LI></UL><p dir="ltr">Though many of us have never heard of antivitamins, scientists have known about them since Sir Edward Mellanby <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/historians-miscellaneous-biographies/edward-mellanby" dir="ltr">identified the first one</a> — though he called it a "toxamin" — in the late 1930s. These substances do what their name implies: They stop vitamins from functioning. As we near the end of the antibiotic era due to the rapid pace at which bacteria are developing resistance to the wonder drugs, researchers are taking a closer look at antivitamins as the basis of a new class of drugs that may potentially replace antibiotics for treating bacterial infections.</p><img src="https://i.connatix.com/s3/connatix-uploads/f5f52ab0-4672-4280-bb21-a31b07583469/1.jpg?mode=crop&amp;width=720&amp;height=405" width="600" height="338"><p dir="ltr">The first step, however, is figuring out <em dir="ltr">how</em> antivitamins do what they do. For example, the antivitamin that nullifies Vitamin B1 differs from the vitamin by just one single atom, and a seemingly unimportant one at that. It doesn't seem as if that should be enough, but it is, and researchers at the University of Göttingen in Germany have just shared research documenting their discovery of what's going on. Their report, "Structural basis for antibiotic action of the B1 antivitamin 2′-methoxy-thiamine," is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-020-0628-4" dir="ltr"><em dir="ltr">Nature Chemical Biology</em></a>.</p><h3 data-role="headline">Shutting down the dance of the proteins</h3><img alt="Vitamin B1" width="101" height="26"><p dir="ltr">Image source: <a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/g/rosinka" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow" dir="ltr">Ekaterina_Minaeva</a>/Shutterstock</p><p dir="ltr">The study was led by <a href="https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/89703.html" dir="ltr">Dr. Kai Tittmann's</a> group from the Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences at the University of Göttingen in collaboration with <a href="https://www3.mpibpc.mpg.de/groups/de_groot/bgroot.html" dir="ltr">Bert De Groot's Computational Biomolecular Dynamics Group</a> from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry Göttingen, and with <a href="https://www.chem.tamu.edu/rgroup/begley/" dir="ltr">Tadhg Begley's group</a> from Texas A&amp;M University in College Station, Texas.</p><p>The B1 antivitamin is </p><p>naturally occurring, and is produced by bacteria as a means of killing off competing bacteria. Its critical  atom appears in an apparently unimportant location, deepening the mystery.</p><p dir="ltr">To see how that single atom was doing such an effective job, the researchers used <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/97/7/3171" dir="ltr">high-resolution protein crystallography</a>. This allowed them to observe the interaction between the B1 antivitamin and B1 on an atomic level.<br dir="ltr"></p><p dir="ltr">What they saw was that the antivitamin completely interrupted the "dance of protons" that's seen in functioning proteins. Tittmann <a href="https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=5964" dir="ltr">says</a>, "Just one extra atom in the antivitamin acts like a grain of sand in a complex gear system by blocking its finely tuned mechanics." (Tittmann's group was the first to document this "dance" in <a href="https://www.technologynetworks.com/proteomics/news/dance-of-the-protons-discovery-shows-proteins-instant-message-324139" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow" dir="ltr">2019</a>.)</p><h3 data-role="headline">Antivitamins don’t bother humans</h3><p>One particularly significant finding of the new research is that, although the B1 antivitamin prevents B1 from functioning in bacteria, it doesn't interfere with the vitamin for humans. This offers hope that antivitamins can be developed that target and neutralize pathogens without doing harm to patients.</p><p>De Groot's team created computer simulations to learn why humans are unaffected by the errant atom, and found that, "The human proteins either do not bind to the antivitamin at all or in such a way that they are not 'poisoned.'"</p><p dir="ltr">The possibility that antivitamins may at some point be ready to step in and replace failing antibiotics is not totally unexpected. Antivitamins were <a href="https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cbic.201500072" dir="ltr">actually used</a> in the development of antibiotic and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/antiproliferative-drug" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow" dir="ltr">antiproliferative</a> drugs such as prontosil and aminopterin. And there are already some antivitamin medicines in use, notably antagonists for vitamins B12, B9, and K.</p><div>From Your Site Articles</div><div>Related Articles Around the Web</div>

As pathogens' resistance grows, scientists are searching for a class of drugs that could replace antibiotics. Enter antivitamins.

German researchers have just solved the mystery of how these substances work.

<ul><li>As pathogens' resistance grows, scientists are searching for a class of drugs that could replace antibiotics. </li><li>Antivitamins that switch off vitamins in bacteria are being investigated. </li><li>Scientists have been struggling to understand how naturally occurring antivitamins do what they do. </li> </ul>

<p dir="ltr">Though many of us have never heard of antivitamins, scientists have known about them since Sir Edward Mellanby <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/historians-miscellaneous-biographies/edward-mellanby">identified the first one </a>— though he called it a "toxamin" — in the late 1930s. These substances do what their name implies: They stop vitamins from functioning. As we near the end of the antibiotic era due to the rapid pace at which bacteria are developing resistance to the wonder drugs, researchers are taking a closer look at antivitamins as the basis of a new class of drugs that may potentially replace antibiotics for treating bacterial infections. </p>

<p dir="ltr">The first step, however, is figuring out <em dir="ltr">how </em>antivitamins do what they do. For example, the antivitamin that nullifies Vitamin B1 differs from the vitamin by just one single atom, and a seemingly unimportant one at that. It doesn't seem as if that should be enough, but it is, and researchers at the University of Göttingen in Germany have just shared research documenting their discovery of what's going on. Their report, "Structural basis for antibiotic action of the B1 antivitamin 2′-methoxy-thiamine," is published in the journal <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-020-0628-4"><em dir="ltr">Nature Chemical Biology </em> </a>. </p>

<p dir="ltr">Image source: <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/g/rosinka" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">Ekaterina_Minaeva </a>/Shutterstock </p>

<p dir="ltr">The study was led by <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/89703.html">Dr. Kai Tittmann's </a>group from the Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences at the University of Göttingen in collaboration with <a dir="ltr" href="https://www3.mpibpc.mpg.de/groups/de_groot/bgroot.html">Bert De Groot's Computational Biomolecular Dynamics Group </a>from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry Göttingen, and with <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.chem.tamu.edu/rgroup/begley/">Tadhg Begley's group </a>from Texas A&amp;M University in College Station, Texas. </p>

<p>naturally occurring, and is produced by bacteria as a means of killing off competing bacteria. Its critical atom appears in an apparently unimportant location, deepening the mystery. </p>

<p dir="ltr">To see how that single atom was doing such an effective job, the researchers used <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.pnas.org/content/97/7/3171">high-resolution protein crystallography </a>. This allowed them to observe the interaction between the B1 antivitamin and B1 on an atomic level.<br dir="ltr"/> </p>

<p dir="ltr">What they saw was that the antivitamin completely interrupted the "dance of protons" that's seen in functioning proteins. Tittmann <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=5964">says </a>, "Just one extra atom in the antivitamin acts like a grain of sand in a complex gear system by blocking its finely tuned mechanics." (Tittmann's group was the first to document this "dance" in <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.technologynetworks.com/proteomics/news/dance-of-the-protons-discovery-shows-proteins-instant-message-324139" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">2019 </a>.) </p>

<p>One particularly significant finding of the new research is that, although the B1 antivitamin prevents B1 from functioning in bacteria, it doesn't interfere with the vitamin for humans. This offers hope that antivitamins can be developed that target and neutralize pathogens without doing harm to patients. </p>

<p>De Groot's team created computer simulations to learn why humans are unaffected by the errant atom, and found that, "The human proteins either do not bind to the antivitamin at all or in such a way that they are not 'poisoned.'" </p>

<p dir="ltr">The possibility that antivitamins may at some point be ready to step in and replace failing antibiotics is not totally unexpected. Antivitamins were <a dir="ltr" href="https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cbic.201500072">actually used </a>in the development of antibiotic and <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/antiproliferative-drug" rel="noopener noreferrer dofollow">antiproliferative </a>drugs such as prontosil and aminopterin. And there are already some antivitamin medicines in use, notably antagonists for vitamins B12, B9, and K. </p>

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Meet antivitamins. They may replace your antibiotics one day

Antivitamins

Bacterial Cell Killers

IDEAS ABOUT

MORE LIKE THIS

9 eye-opening facts about antibiotic resistance

Nanosilver: Naughty or nice? | Science News for Students

Small & Large Intestines: Intestinal Structure, Function, Diseases

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Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career