Uric acid nucleoside, oxidation

FIGURE 1 7-3 Adenosine metabolites. Adenosine is converted to inosine by adenosine deaminase. Removal of the ribose by nucleoside phos phorylase produces hypoxanthine, which is sequentially oxidized to xanthine and uric acid by xanthine oxidase. 

Degradation of dietary nucleic acids occurs in the small intestine, where a family of pancreatic enzymes hydrolyzes the nucleotides to nucleosides and free bases. Inside cells, purine nucleotides are sequentially degraded by specific enzymes, with uric acid as the end product of this pathway. [Note Mammals other than primates oxidize uric acid further to allantoin, which, in some animals other than mammals, may be further degraded to urea or ammonia.]... 

Uric acid is the major product of catabolism of purine nucleosides adenosine and guanosine. Hypoxanthine and xanthine are intermediates along this pathway (Fig. 2). Under normal conditions, they reflect the balance between the synthesis and breakdown of nucleotides. Levels of these compounds change in various situations (e.g., they decrease in experimental tumors) when synthesis prevails over catabolism, and are enhanced during oxidative stress and hypoxia. Uric acid serves as a marker for tubular... 

In a commercially available assay, serum NTP catalyzes the hydrolysis of IMP to yield inosine, which is then converted to hypoxanthine by purine-nucleoside phosphorylase (EC 2.4.2.1). Hypoxanthine is oxidized to urate with xanthine oxidase (EC 1.2.3.2). Two moles of hydrogen peroxide are produced for each mole of hypoxanthine liberated and converted to uric acid. The formation rate of hydrogen peroxide is monitored by a spectrophotometer at 510nm by the oxidation of a chromogenic system. The effect of ALPs on IMP is inhibited by p-glycerophosphate. This material is substrate for ALP but not for NTP, and by forming substrate complexes with the former enzyme, it reduces the proportion of the total ALP activity that is directed to the hydrolysis of the NTP substrate, IMP. ... 

Occurrence In small amounts in muscles, liver, urinary calculi, beet juice, barley shoots, fly agarics, peanut kernels, potatoes, yeasts, coffee beans, tea leaves. X. is formed in the metabolism of higher animals by deamination of guanine (component of nucleic acid) or oxidation of hypoxanthine by xanthine oxidase present in muscles which then also oxidizes X. further to uric acid, the final product of the purine metabolism in humans. The nucleoside derived from X. is xanthosine. Although X. is chemically closely related to "caffein(e) and other methylxanthines, its activity is different. Stimulation of the central nervous system is less pronounced, the paralyzing effects dominate, and cardiac muscles are severely damaged. 

Aerobic P. d. The amino groups of adenine and guanine are removed hydrolytically by specific deaminases, which attack the free bases, the nucleosides or the nucleotides (Fig.). Uric acid is then produced by the action of xanthine oxidase (EC 1.2.3.2), which is the key enzyme of aerobic P.d. In humans and apes, the uric acid is excreted largely unchanged. In most reptiles and mammals, it is oxidized to allantoin by uricase (EC 1.73.3) (uricolysis). 

Purine metabolites were measured via fluorimetric detection of the rate of H2O2 production during sequential catabolism of uric acid. H 02 oxidizes nonfluorescent dichlorofluorescin to fluorescent dichlorofluorescein under conditions that allow for detection of lOpmoles of purine substrate, Deoxy- and ribo-nucleosides may be partitioned by boronate affinity chromatography thus allowing their separate determination. 

Uric Add Formation. In vertebrates purines are oxidized to uric acid. This reaction is catalyzed by xanthine oxidase (or dehydrogenase), which attacks both hypoxanthine and xanthine.Since adenine and guanine nucleotides can give rise to the hydroxylated purines either as the nucleotide, nucleoside, or free base, all of the naturally occurring purines of animals can be converted to uric acid. Adenine may also be oxidized to 2,8-dihydroxy-4-aminopurine, which is excreted in the urine. The formation of uric acid from any of its precursors is followed conveniently spectrophotometrically (Fig. 29). ... 

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