23 



SOME ASPECTS 



OF BIOCHEMICAL 



ANTAGONISM 



D. VV. WOOLLEY, associate, the rockefeller institute for 



MEDICAL RESEARCH, NEW YORK; THE LILLY AWARD IN BACTERIOLOGY; 

 MEAD JOHNSON AWARD IN NUTRITION 



n 



|URING the past five years, a series of observations has 

 been reported which show that compounds having spe- 

 cific antagonistic action to vitamins and to certain other metaboUtes 

 can be synthesized or obtained from nature. The uses to which these 

 materials may and have been put in the study of biochemistry, as well 

 as their promise in the field of pharmacology, have made it seem de- 

 sirable to winnow the data thus far obtained and to plant in a promi- 

 nent place whatever viable seeds may appear. 



The agents antagonistic to metabolites may be divided, for 

 purposes of the present discussion, into two groups. The first contains 

 those inhibitory compounds which have structures analogous to the 

 metabolites in question. The second is composed of specific proteins 

 which react with certain metabolites in such a manner as to render 

 them biologically inactive in the systems in which they are studied. 

 The first of these two groups has been examined much more intensively, 

 and at the moment appears to bear more immediate promise than the 

 latter. 



The work of Woods with //-aminobenzoic acid was the first to 

 cause widespread interest in compounds related structurally to vita- 



357 



