Story 1: Marine sponges. The first time I encountered taurine was during my PhD where we routinely isolated the zwitterionic taurine and trigonelline from marine sponges. A paper from around that time found that taurine was often the most abundant amino acid in marine sponges, along with hypotaurine and glycine. Interestingly recent work has reported that taurine plays a role in host-symbiont interactions in Ianthella basta – a sponge that I worked on during my PhD and Postdoc (here and here).

Story 2: Antibacterial. In November 2023, the FDA approved the use of a taurolidine and heparin (DefenCath^®) as a “catheter lock solution to reduce catheter-related bloodstream infections in adult patients with kidney failure who are receiving chronic hemodialysis through a central venous catheter.” A taurolidine containing catheter lock solution TauroSept^® has been available in Europe since 2006. The use of catheter lock solutions was reviewed in 2022 for those interested. Taurolidine has weak broad spectrum antibacterial activity against both G+ve and G-ve bacteria. In aqueous solution, taurolidine is equilibrium with several species, which have antibacterial activity: the methylol groups can react with peptidoglycan, endotoxins and exotoxins, while taurine and taurinamide also have weak antibacterial activity.

Story 3: Energy drinks. In addition to caffeine, energy drinks such as Red Bull contain taurine, several B vitamins and sugars/sugar substitutes. In Australia, there is 400 mg/100mL of taurine and 32 mg/100 mL of caffeine, but these levels can vary by country. Red Bull GmbH is one of the most interesting companies in the world, which was recently explored in Founders podcast #333 (highly recommended).