MolDraw › Templates › Biochemistry › Purine breakdown to uric acid
BiochemistryPremium
Purine breakdown to uric acid template
Premium template. Preview and edit it free in MolDraw; downloading and exporting it is part of MolDraw Pro.
AMP → adenosine → inosine (adenosine deaminase) → hypoxanthine (purine nucleoside phosphorylase) → xanthine → uric acid (xanthine oxidase); GMP → guanosine → guanine → xanthine (guanine deaminase); allopurinol → oxypurinol blocks xanthine oxidase in gout.
What the template shows
- AMP and GMP are stripped of phosphate and ribose and oxidised by xanthine oxidase; humans excrete the end product, uric acid
- From AMP
- R = β-D-ribose 5′-phosphate, R′ = β-D-ribose (N9-linked); PNP = purine nucleoside phosphorylase. Xanthine oxidase is a molybdenum enzyme (Mo, FAD, Fe–S) and works twice
- uric acid
- From GMP
- Guanine joins the same path at xanthine
- Allopurinol, a hypoxanthine analogue, treats gout
- Xanthine oxidase turns it into oxypurinol (alloxanthine), which stays bound to the reduced Mo(IV) centre
- oxypurinol (alloxanthine)
- Humans and apes lack urate oxidase, so uric acid (pKa ≈ 5.4, mostly urate in blood) is the end product; other mammals excrete allantoin.
- Gout: monosodium urate crystals deposit in joints when serum urate is high. Allopurinol (Elion and Hitchings, Nobel Prize 1988) and febuxostat inhibit xanthine oxidase; hypoxanthine and xanthine are more soluble and are excreted.
- Adenosine deaminase deficiency causes severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID); HGPRT deficiency (Lesch–Nyhan) stops salvage of hypoxanthine and guanine and raises uric acid.
- Each xanthine oxidase step adds an O at C2 or C8 from water; O₂ takes the electrons and leaves as H₂O₂. Tautomers are drawn as the oxo (lactam) forms.
Drawn with 133 atoms, 9 arrows, 3 shapes – every one editable in MolDraw.
Sources
How to use this template
- Press Edit in MolDraw. The template opens on the canvas of the free MolDraw editor.
- Change anything: move structures, edit atoms and labels, recolour highlights or delete what you do not need.
- Add your own structures, arrows and text next to it, or combine several templates on one page.
- Export the drawing as PNG, SVG or PDF for slides, worksheets, theses and papers.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Purine breakdown to uric acid template free?
You can preview the Purine breakdown to uric acid template here and open and edit it in MolDraw for free. Downloading or exporting it is part of MolDraw Pro, together with the other premium templates.
Can I edit the Purine breakdown to uric acid template?
Yes. It opens as an ordinary MolDraw drawing, so every structure, arrow, label and colour can be changed, and you can add your own content around it.
Is the chemistry checked?
Every structure is checked with RDKit and every curly arrow passes MolDraw’s electron-flow audit. The sources used are listed on this page.
Are the biochemical pathways drawn with structures?
Yes. Pathway templates show the intermediates as structures, with enzymes and cofactors (NAD⁺, FAD, ATP) on the arrows.