Abstract
I WOULD like to record some experiments made three years ago and recently repeated with a different technique. During a search for chemically defined growth-factors for M. tuberculosis, it was decided to investigate vitamin K. The role of vitamin K in bacterial metabolism has not been determined; but this vitamin is present in many organisms and is probably of nutritional importance1,2,3. Anderson has isolated from a laboratory strain of human tubercle bacillus a pigment, ‘phthiocol' (2 methyl 3 hydroxy 1 : 4 naphthoquinone), which has vitamin K-like activity4,5. It has been postulated that phthiocol is derived from vitamin K during the extraction of the bacteria6. For many years it has been known that M. paratuberculosis when freshly isolated will grow only on media containing extracts of other acid-fast bacteria, notably M. phlei. The claim has been made that phthiocol and 2 methyl 1 : 4 naphthoquinone can replace M. phlei7; but the stimulant action is not so marked, and hence it does not follow that the M. phlei growth-factor and these compounds are the same. M. tuberculosis var. hominis can also have its growth accelerated by extracts of other acid-fast bacteria, and for these reasons this investigation was undertaken. Reports in the literature on the action of phthiocol and 2 methyl naphthoquinone are not consistent8,9, but naphthoquinone derivatives have been claimed as inhibitory10. In the accompanying table compounds 1 and 2 are water-soluble synthetic vitamin K derivatives and both inhibit growth.
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ILAND, C. Effect of Antibacterial Analogues of Vitamin K on M. tuberculosis. Nature 161, 1010 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/1611010a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1611010a0
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