Xanthine porphyrins

In summary, a 6-substituted pterin was first identified as a structural component of the molybdenum cofactor from sulfite oxidase, xanthine oxidase and nitrate reductase in 1980 (24). Subsequent studies provided good evidence that these enzymes possessed the same unstable molyb-dopterin (1), and it seemed likely that 1 was a constituent of all of the enzymes of Table I. It now appears that there is a family of closely related 6-substituted pterins that may differ in the oxidation state of the pterin ring, the stereochemistry of the dihydropterin ring, the tautomeric form of the side chain, and the presence and nature of a dinucleotide in the side chain. In some ways the variations that are being discovered for the pterin units of molybdenum enzymes are beginning to parallel the known complexity of naturally occurring porphyrins, which may have several possible side chains, various isomers of such side chains, and a partially reduced porphyrin skeleton (46). 

---