Caffeine: Difference between revisions

Caffeine is a stimulant that helps temporary increased alertness as well as energy increase. It is found in several plants; most commonly in those plant leaves and seeds. It can also be artificially created and added.  Within the human body, Caffeine can affect the CNS for 6 hours. It binds to Adenosine receptors and inhibits their effects allowing for more attentiveness (Xu and Stevens, 2011).

Caffeine is a derivative of adenosine and is also called Trimethylxanthine. It is composed of purines; structurally it is polar, and water soluble. They antagonize or inhibit many of the adenosine receptors, like the A1 receptor mentioned above. Caffeine affects neurons and glial cells in the brain by binding to the same location that adenosine would bind and then induce a cascade of enzymatic downstream effects (Denoeud ''et al'' 2014).

Caffeine is a naturally occurring methylxanthine, purine alkaloid, synthesized by eudicot plants such as coffee, cacao, and tea (Denoeud et. al, 2014). In order to synthesize caffeine, xanthosine must undergo 3 methylation steps with the help of three NMT enzymes; xanthosine methyltransferase (XMT), theobromine synthase (MXMT), and caffeine synthase (DXMT) (Denoeud et. al, 2014). The first step of caffeine biosynthesis involves XMT converting S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) to S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) which removes a methyl group and adds it to the 7’-Nitrogen. This produces the intermediate 7-methyl-xanthosine to become 7-methyl-xanthine (Denoeud ''et al'' 2014). The second enzyme, MXMT, converts another SAM to SAH, subsequently add a methyl group to the 3’- Nitrogen on 7-methyl-xanthine. This produces theobromine which may undergo another methylation step with the help of the enzyme DXMT. DXMT converts a third SAM to SAH, adding a methyl group to the 1’-Nitrogen, yielding a caffeine molecule (Denoeud ''et al'' 2014).