Release time：2025-07-24 Click:
Pyrroloquinoline Quinone disodium salt(PQQ Powder) is a powerful nutrient, one of the most important supplement ingredient in humans wellness, and also called Methoxatin or a new B vitamin yet.
Today let's have a discuss where the name of Methoxatin or a new B vitamin come from.As we know, PQQ unfolded gradually through biochemical research in the mid-20th century, driven by investigations into bacterial enzymes rather than a targeted search for a new cofactor.
1. Initial Observations and Misidentification (1960s)
The story began when researchers studying certain dehydrogenases (enzymes that remove hydrogen) in bacteria like *Acetobacter* and *Methylobacterium* noticed an unusual, brightly colored, fluorescent cofactor tightly bound to these enzymes. This cofactor was essential for the enzyme's activity but didn't match the properties of known cofactors like NAD+or FAD. Initially, in 1964, Anthony Zatman and colleagues studying alcohol dehydrogenase in *Pseudomonas aeruginosa* misidentified this unknown factor as a new B vitamin, tentatively naming it "Methoxatin." This misclassification stemmed from its vitamin-like requirement for bacterial growth.
2. Recognition as a Novel Cofactor (1970s)
Throughout the 1970s, the distinct nature of this cofactor became clearer. Researchers like J. G. Hauge and Frank Salisbury identified a similar cofactor in glucose dehydrogenase from *Acinetobacter calcoaceticus*. Crucially, J.A. Duine, J. Frank, and their colleagues in the Netherlands conducted extensive work on methanol dehydrogenase (MDH) from methylotrophic bacteria (bacteria that grow on methanol). They isolated and characterized the prosthetic group of MDH, demonstrating it was a novel, non-phenolic, ortho-quinone cofactor distinct from all previously known enzyme cofactors. Duine proposed the name "Quinoprotein" for enzymes utilizing this type of cofactor.
3. Elucidation of Structure and Naming (1979)
The definitive breakthrough came in 1979. Two groups independently and simultaneously determined the precise chemical structure of this elusive cofactor:
◆ J.A. Duine, J. Frank, and J. Verwiel published the structure based on their work with methanol dehydrogenase from *Hyphomicrobium X*.
◆ Kenjiro Sagai, Chikahiro Sakurai, and colleagues published the structure based on their work with alcohol dehydrogenase from *Acetobacter aceti*.
They revealed it to be a tricyclic ortho-quinone, specifically 4,5-dihydro-4,5-dioxo-1H-pyrrolo[2,3-f]quinoline-2,7,9-tricarboxylic acid. This complex structure explained its unique spectral properties and reactivity. The compound was subsequently named Pyrroloquinoline Quinone (PQQ).
4. Resolution of the "Vitamin" Confusion
Following the elucidation of its structure and the realization that while bacteria *synthesize* PQQ as a cofactor, it wasn't a true vitamin required in the diet of higher organisms in the same way as classical B vitamins, the initial designation as "Methoxatin" or a "new B vitamin" was largely abandoned in favor of the descriptive chemical name Pyrroloquinoline Quinone.
PQQ was discovered not through a direct search for it, but as the essential, novel, and brightly colored cofactor of several bacterial quinoproteins (especially dehydrogenases like methanol dehydrogenase and glucose dehydrogenase). Its journey involved initial misidentification, recognition as a unique cofactor class in the 1970s, and the final elucidation of its complex quinone structure by two independent groups in 1979, leading to its naming as Pyrroloquinoline Quinone.
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