Uric acid purine degradation

See also Urea Cycle Descriptions, Urea Cycle Reactions, Utilization of Ammonia, Uric Acid, Purine Degradation... 

Only in certain animals is uric acid further degraded, and it is a purine degradation product, not a pyrimidine. 

The following compounds yield uric acid when degraded DNA, FAD, and NAD+. All of these contain purines. 

If the enzyme uricase is present in the tissues, as it is in many animals, uric acid is degraded to allantoin as the end product of purine catabolism 240). Uricase was found in the liver, kidneys, and spleen of most mammals, but was absent from human tissues 268). The Dalmatian coach hound was unusual in that it excreted uric acid even though its liver contained appreciable quantities of uricase 259). It is believed that uric acid appears in the urine of this animal because of the low renal threshold for the compound 260). 

The presence of uricase assists the uric acid to be hydrolysed, and the end product of purine degradation is completed with the addition of uricase. 

Human tissues can synthesize purines and pyrimidines from amphibolic intermediates. Ingested nucleic acids and nucleotides, which therefore are dietarily nonessential, are degraded in the intestinal tract to mononucleotides, which may be absorbed or converted to purine and pyrimidine bases. The purine bases are then oxidized to uric acid, which may be absorbed and excreted in the urine. While little or no dietary purine or pyrimidine is incorporated into tissue nucleic acids, injected compounds are incorporated. The incorporation of injected [ H] thymidine into newly synthesized DNA thus is used to measure the rate of DNA synthesis. 

Figure 34-8. Formation of uric acid from purine nucleosides byway of the purine bases hypoxanthine, xanthine, and guanine. Purine deoxyribonucleosides are degraded by the same catabolic pathwayand enzymes,all of which existin the mucosa of the mammalian gastrointestinal tract.

Demonstration of the anaerobic degradation of purines belongs to the golden age of microbiology and was appropriately discovered in Beijerinck s laboratory in Delft. Liebert (1909) obtained a pure culture of an organism that was able to grow anaerobically with 2,6,8-trihydroxypurine (uric acid). 

Gout is caused by an abnormality in uric acid metabolism. Uric acid is a waste product of the breakdown of purines contained in the DNA of degraded body cells and dietary protein. Uric acid is water soluble and excreted primarily by the kidneys, although some is broken down by colonic bacteria and excreted via the gastrointestinal tract. 

Uric acid is one of the principal products of purine metabolism in man 12 13). However, in many other organisms further oxidative degradation of the purine molecule occurs. One of the most important enzymes involved in uric acid oxidation is uricase, which has been studied to some extent in vitro. 

Another early genetic disease for correction by gene therapy was SCID. One form of this disease is caused by a lack of adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity. ADA is an enzyme that plays a central role in the degradation of purine nucleosides (it catalyses the removal of ammonia from adenosine, forming inosine, which, in turn, is usually eventually converted to uric acid). This leads to T- and B-lymphocyte dysfunction. Lack of an effective immune system means that SCID sufferers must be kept in an essentially sterile environment. 

In humans, uric acid is the end product of the degradation of purines. It serves no known physiologic purpose and is regarded as a waste product. The size of the urate pool is increased severalfold in individuals with gout. This excess accumulation may result from either overproduction or underexcretion. 

Figure 10.8 A summary of the reactions involved in the degradation of nucleic acid, nucleotides, nucleosides and purine and pyn midine bases. Nucleic add is hydrolysed by nucleases to form nucleotides, which are hydrolysed to nucleosides. The latter are split into ribose 1-phosphate and a base. The purine bases are converted to uric acid and ammonia. Uric acid is excreted. The pyrimidine bases are converted to 3-carbon intermediates (malo-nate semialdehyde and methylmalonate semialdehyde). The nitrogen is released as ammonia or used to convert oxoglutarate to glutamate.

Gout is one of the most ancient diseases its clinical characteristics have been known for at least 2000 years. It is now very effectively treated with drugs that decrease production of uric acid by inhibition of the enzyme xanthine oxidase in purine degradation (Figure 10.9) (allopurinol), and a drug that increases the excretion of uric acid (probenecid)... 

Nucleic acid degradation in humans and many other animals leads to production of uric acid, which is then excreted. The process initially involves purine nucleotides, adenosine and guanosine, which are combinations of adenine or guanine with ribose (see Section 14.1). The purine bases are subsequently modified as shown. 

The principles underlying the degradation of purines (1) and pyrimidines (2) differ. In the human organism, purines are degraded into uric acid and excreted in this form. The purine ring remains intact in this process. In contrast, the ring of the pyrimidine bases (uracil, thymine, and cytosine) is broken down into small fragments, which can be returned to the metabolism or excreted (for further details, see p. 419). 

In the most important degradative pathway for adenosine monophosphate (AMP), it is the nucleotide that deaminated, and inosine monophosphate (IMP) arises. In the same way as in GMP, the purine base hypoxanthine is released from IMP. A single enzyme, xanthine oxidase [3], then both converts hypoxanthine into xanthine and xanthine into uric acid. An 0X0 group is introduced into the substrate in each of these reaction steps. The oxo group is derived from molecular oxygen another reaction product is hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), which is toxic and has to be removed by peroxidases. 

Almost all mammals carry out further degradation of uric acid with the help of uricase, with further opening of the ring to allantoin, which is then excreted. However, the primates, including humans, are not capable of synthesizing allantoin. Uric acid is therefore the form of the purines excreted in these... 

The fact that purine degradation in humans already stops at the uric acid stage can lead to problems, since—in contrast to allantoin—uric acid is poorly soluble in water. When large amounts of uric acid are formed or uric acid processing is disturbed, excessive concentrations of uric acid can develop in the blood hyperuricemia). This can result in the accumulation of uric acid crystals in the body. Deposition of these crystals in the joints can cause very painful attacks of gout. 

A. Purine nucleotides are degraded or disassembled to uric acid (Figure 10-6). 

The excess purines are degraded to uric acid causing increased biood ieveis of this metaboiite (hyperuricemia) and deposition of sodium urate crystais in the Joints and kidneys. 

Dietary purines are not an important source of uric acid. Quantitatively important amounts of purine are formed from amino acids, formate, and carbon dioxide in the body. Those purine ribonucleotides not incorporated into nucleic acids and derived from nucleic acid degradation are converted to xanthine or hypoxanthine and oxidized to uric acid (Figure 36-7). Allopurinol inhibits this last step, resulting in a fall in the plasma urate level and a decrease in the size of the urate pool. The more soluble xanthine and hypoxanthine are increased. 

We examine here the biosynthetic pathways of purine and pyrimidine nucleotides and their regulation, the formation of the deoxynucleotides, and the degradation of purines and pyrimidines to uric acid and urea. We end with a discussion of chemotherapeutic agents that affect nucleotide synthesis. 

Degradation of Purines and Pyrimidines Produces Uric Acid and Urea, Respectively... 

Purine nucleotides are degraded by a pathway in which they lose their phosphate through the action of 5 -nucleotidase (Fig. 22-45). Adenylate yields adenosine, which is deaminated to inosine by adenosine deaminase, and inosine is hydrolyzed to hypoxanthine (its purine base) and D-ribose. Hypoxanthine is oxidized successively to xanthine and then uric acid by xanthine oxidase, a flavoenzyme with an atom of molybdenum and four iron-sulfur centers in its prosthetic group. Molecular oxygen is the electron acceptor in this complex reaction. 

FIGURE 22-45 Catabolism of purine nucleotides. Note that primates as uric acid from purine degradation. Similarly, fish excrete much more... 

Uric acid is the excreted end product of purine catabolism in primates, birds, and some other animals. A healthy adult human excretes uric acid at a rate of about 0.6 g/24 h the excreted product arises in part from ingested purines and in part from turnover of the purine nucleotides of nucleic acids. In most mammals and many other vertebrates, uric acid is further degraded to al-lantoin by the action of urate oxidase. In other organisms the pathway is further extended, as shown in Figure 22-45. 

Uric acid and urea are the end products of purine and pyrimidine degradation. 

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.]... 

Hypoxanthine is oxidized by xanthine oxidase to xanthine, which is further oxidized by xanthine oxidase to uric acid, the final product of human purine degradation. Uric acid is excreted in the urine. 

The degradation of purine nucleotides to uric acid, illustrating some of the genetic diseases associated with this pathway. [Note The numbers in brackets refer to the corresponding numbered citations in the text.]... 

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