Urate oxidase

Last updated
UOX
Identifiers
Aliases UOX , UOXP, URICASE, Urate oxidase, urate oxidase (pseudogene)
External IDs MGI: 98907 GeneCards: UOX
Orthologs
SpeciesHumanMouse
Entrez
Ensembl
UniProt
RefSeq (mRNA)

n/a

NM_009474

RefSeq (protein)

n/a

NP_033500

Location (UCSC)n/a Chr 3: 146.28 – 146.34 Mb
PubMed search [2] [3]
Wikidata
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The enzyme urate oxidase (UO), uricase or factor-independent urate hydroxylase, absent in humans, catalyzes the oxidation of uric acid to 5-hydroxyisourate: [4]

Contents

Uric acid + O2 + H2O → 5-hydroxyisourate + H2O2
5-hydroxyisourate + H2O → 2-oxo-4-hydroxy-4-carboxy-5-ureidoimidazoline
2-oxo-4-hydroxy-4-carboxy-5-ureidoimidazoline → allantoin + CO2
sequence of oxidation of ureate. UreateOxidaseRxn.svg
sequence of oxidation of ureate.

Structure

Urate oxidase is mainly localised in the liver, where it forms a large electron-dense paracrystalline core in many peroxisomes. [5] The enzyme exists as a tetramer of identical subunits, each containing a possible type 2 copper-binding site. [6]

Urate oxidase is a homotetrameric enzyme containing four identical active sites situated at the interfaces between its four subunits. UO from A. flavus is made up of 301 residues and has a molecular weight of 33438 daltons. It is unique among the oxidases in that it does not require a metal atom or an organic co-factor for catalysis. Sequence analysis of several organisms has determined that there are 24 amino acids which are conserved, and of these, 15 are involved with the active site.

factor-independent urate hydroxylase
Identifiers
EC no. 1.7.3.3
CAS no. 9002-12-4
Databases
IntEnz IntEnz view
BRENDA BRENDA entry
ExPASy NiceZyme view
KEGG KEGG entry
MetaCyc metabolic pathway
PRIAM profile
PDB structures RCSB PDB PDBe PDBsum
Gene Ontology AmiGO / QuickGO
Search
PMC articles
PubMed articles
NCBI proteins
Uricase
Identifiers
SymbolUricase
Pfam PF01014
InterPro IPR002042
PROSITE PDOC00315
SCOP2 1uox / SCOPe / SUPFAM
Available protein structures:
Pfam   structures / ECOD  
PDB RCSB PDB; PDBe; PDBj
PDBsum structure summary
PDB 1ws2 D:142-291 1r56 A:142-291 1ws3 B:142-291 1xxj D:142-291 1xt4 A:142-291 1r4u A:142-291 1r51 A:142-291 1r4s A:142-291 1j2g B:336-476

Reaction mechanism

Urate oxidase is the first enzyme in a pathway of three enzymes to convert uric acid to S-(+)-allantoin. After uric acid is converted to 5-hydroxyisourate by urate oxidase, 5-hydroxyisourate (HIU) is converted to 2-oxo-4-hydroxy-4-carboxy-5-ureidoimidazoline (OHCU) by HIU hydrolase, and then to S-(+)-allantoin by 2-oxo-4-hydroxy-4-carboxy-5-ureidoimidazoline decarboxylase (OHCU decarboxylase). Without HIU hydrolase and OHCU decarboxylase, HIU will spontaneously decompose into racemic allantoin. [7]

The active site binds uric acid (and its analogues), allowing it to interact with O2. [8] According to X-ray crystallography, it is the conjugate base of uric acid that binds and is then deprotonated to a dianion. The dianion is stabilized by extensive hydrogen-bonding, e.g., to Arg 176 and Gln 228 . [9] Oxygen accepts two electrons from the urate dianion, via a sequence of one-electron transfers, ultimately yielding hydrogen peroxide and the dehydrogenated substrate. The dehydrourate adds water (hydrates) to produce 5-hydroxyisourate. [10]

Urate oxidase is known to be inhibited by both cyanide and chloride ions. Inhibition involves anion-π interactions between the inhibitor and the uric acid substrate. [11]

Significance of absence in humans

Urate oxidase is found in nearly all organisms, from bacteria to mammals, but is inactive in humans and all apes (great and lesser apes), having been lost in hominoid ancestors during primate evolution. [6] This means that instead of producing allantoin as the end product of purine oxidation, the pathway ends with uric acid. This leads to humans having much higher and more highly variable levels of urate in the blood than most other mammals. [12]

Genetically, the loss of urate oxidase function in humans was caused by two nonsense mutations at codons 33 and 187 and an aberrant splice site. [13]

It has been proposed that the loss of urate oxidase gene expression has been advantageous to hominoids, since uric acid is a powerful antioxidant and scavenger of singlet oxygen and radicals. Its presence provides the body with protection from oxidative damage, thus prolonging life and decreasing age-specific cancer rates. [14]

However, uric acid plays a complex physiological role in several processes, including inflammation and danger signalling, [15] and modern purine-rich diets can lead to hyperuricaemia, which is linked to many diseases including an increased risk of developing gout. [12]

Medical uses

Urate oxidase is formulated as a protein drug (rasburicase) for the treatment of acute hyperuricemia in patients receiving chemotherapy. A PEGylated form of urate oxidase, pegloticase, was FDA approved in 2010 for the treatment of chronic gout in adult patients refractory to "conventional therapy". [16]

Disease relevance

Children with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), specifically with Burkitt's lymphoma and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), often experience tumor lysis syndrome (TLS), which occurs when breakdown of tumor cells by chemotherapy releases uric acid and cause the formation of uric acid crystals in the renal tubules and collecting ducts. This can lead to kidney failure and even death. Studies suggest that patients at a high risk of developing TLS may benefit from the administration of urate oxidase. [17] However, humans lack the subsequent enzyme HIU hydroxylase in the pathway to degrade uric acid to allantoin, so long-term urate oxidase therapy could potentially have harmful effects because of toxic effects of HIU. [18]

Higher uric acid levels have also been associated with epilepsy. However, it was found in mouse models that disrupting urate oxidase actually decreases brain excitability and susceptibility to seizures. [19]

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is often a side effect of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), driven by donor T cells destroying host tissue. Uric acid has been shown to increase T cell response, so clinical trials have shown that urate oxidase can be administered to decrease uric acid levels in the patient and subsequently decrease the likelihood of GVHD. [20]

In legumes

UO is also an essential enzyme in the ureide pathway, where nitrogen fixation occurs in the root nodules of legumes. The fixed nitrogen is converted to metabolites that are transported from the roots throughout the plant to provide the needed nitrogen for amino acid biosynthesis.

In legumes, 2 forms of uricase are found: in the roots, the tetrameric form; and, in the uninfected cells of root nodules, a monomeric form, which plays an important role in nitrogen-fixation. [21]

Convergent evolution

Urate oxidase is a notable example of the existence of non-homologous isofunctional enzymes, proteins with independent evolutionary origin catalyzing the same chemical reaction.

Besides the cofactorless urate oxidase (UOX), which is found in all three domains of life, other bacterial proteins are known that catalyze the same reaction without being evolutionarily related to UOX. These are two different oxidases (named HpxO and HpyO) that use FAD and NAD+ as cofactors, and one integral membrane protein (named PuuD) that additionally contains a cytochrome c protein domain. [22]


See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uric acid</span> Organic compound

Uric acid is a heterocyclic compound of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen with the formula C5H4N4O3. It forms ions and salts known as urates and acid urates, such as ammonium acid urate. Uric acid is a product of the metabolic breakdown of purine nucleotides, and it is a normal component of urine. High blood concentrations of uric acid can lead to gout and are associated with other medical conditions, including diabetes and the formation of ammonium acid urate kidney stones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xanthine oxidase</span> Class of enzymes

Xanthine oxidase is a form of xanthine oxidoreductase, a type of enzyme that generates reactive oxygen species. These enzymes catalyze the oxidation of hypoxanthine to xanthine and can further catalyze the oxidation of xanthine to uric acid. These enzymes play an important role in the catabolism of purines in some species, including humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allopurinol</span> Medication

Allopurinol is a medication used to decrease high blood uric acid levels. It is specifically used to prevent gout, prevent specific types of kidney stones and for the high uric acid levels that can occur with chemotherapy. It is taken orally or intravenously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eicosanoid</span> Class of compounds

Eicosanoids are signaling molecules made by the enzymatic or non-enzymatic oxidation of arachidonic acid or other polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) that are, similar to arachidonic acid, around 20 carbon units in length. Eicosanoids are a sub-category of oxylipins, i.e. oxidized fatty acids of diverse carbon units in length, and are distinguished from other oxylipins by their overwhelming importance as cell signaling molecules. Eicosanoids function in diverse physiological systems and pathological processes such as: mounting or inhibiting inflammation, allergy, fever and other immune responses; regulating the abortion of pregnancy and normal childbirth; contributing to the perception of pain; regulating cell growth; controlling blood pressure; and modulating the regional flow of blood to tissues. In performing these roles, eicosanoids most often act as autocrine signaling agents to impact their cells of origin or as paracrine signaling agents to impact cells in the proximity of their cells of origin. Some eicosanoids, such as prostaglandins, may also have endocrine roles as hormones to influence the function of distant cells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pyridoxal phosphate</span> Active form of vitamin B6

Pyridoxal phosphate (PLP, pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, P5P), the active form of vitamin B6, is a coenzyme in a variety of enzymatic reactions. The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology has catalogued more than 140 PLP-dependent activities, corresponding to ~4% of all classified activities. The versatility of PLP arises from its ability to covalently bind the substrate, and then to act as an electrophilic catalyst, thereby stabilizing different types of carbanionic reaction intermediates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allantoin</span> Chemical compound

Allantoin is a chemical compound with formula C4H6N4O3. It is also called 5-ureidohydantoin or glyoxyldiureide. It is a diureide of glyoxylic acid. Allantoin is a major metabolic intermediate in most organisms including animals, plants and bacteria. It is produced from uric acid, which itself is a degradation product of nucleic acids, by action of urate oxidase (uricase). Allantoin also occurs as a natural mineral compound (IMA symbol Aan).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rasburicase</span> Pharmaceutical drug

Rasburicase is a medication that helps to clear uric acid from the blood. It is a recombinant version of urate oxidase, an enzyme that metabolizes uric acid to allantoin. Urate oxidase is known to be present in many mammals but does not naturally occur in humans. Rasburicase is produced by a genetically modified Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain. The complementary DNA (cDNA) coding for rasburicase was cloned from a strain of Aspergillus flavus.

Carboxy-lyases, also known as decarboxylases, are carbon–carbon lyases that add or remove a carboxyl group from organic compounds. These enzymes catalyze the decarboxylation of amino acids, beta-keto acids and alpha-keto acids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5-Hydroxyisourate</span> Chemical compound

5-Hydroxyisourate is an organic compound that is produced by the oxidation of uric acid. The conversion is a major pathway in the antioxidant properties of urate. The conversion is catalysed by urate oxidase.

The enzyme aconitate decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.6) (i.e., ACOD1, also termed cis-aconitate decarboxylase, immune-responsive gene 1, immune response gene 1, and IRK1) is a protein enzyme that in humans is encoded by the decarboxylase 1 aconitate decarboxylase 1 gene located at position 22.3 on the long arm (i.e., p-arm) of chromosome 13. ACOD1 catalyzes the following reversible (i.e., runs in both directions, as indicated by ) decarboxylation chemical reaction:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diphosphomevalonate decarboxylase</span> InterPro Family

Diphosphomevalonate decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.33), most commonly referred to in scientific literature as mevalonate diphosphate decarboxylase, is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allantoicase</span>

Allantoicase is an enzyme (EC 3.5.3.4) that in humans is encoded by the ALLC gene. Allantoicase catalyzes the chemical reaction

In enzymology, a hydroxyisourate hydrolase (EC 3.5.2.17) is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxoeicosanoid receptor 1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Oxoeicosanoid receptor 1 (OXER1) also known as G-protein coupled receptor 170 (GPR170) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the OXER1 gene located on human chromosome 2p21; it is the principal receptor for the 5-Hydroxyicosatetraenoic acid family of carboxy fatty acid metabolites derived from arachidonic acid. The receptor has also been termed hGPCR48, HGPCR48, and R527 but OXER1 is now its preferred designation. OXER1 is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that is structurally related to the hydroxy-carboxylic acid (HCA) family of G protein-coupled receptors whose three members are HCA1 (GPR81), HCA2, and HCA3 ; OXER1 has 30.3%, 30.7%, and 30.7% amino acid sequence identity with these GPCRs, respectively. It is also related to the recently defined receptor, GPR31, for the hydroxyl-carboxy fatty acid 12-HETE.

Pegloticase is a medication for the treatment of severe, treatment-refractory, chronic gout. It is a third line treatment in those in whom other treatments are not effective or are not tolerated. The drug is administered by infusion intravenously. Since October 2023, Amgen Inc. has been the marketer of pegloticase in the U.S.

In molecular biology 2-oxo-4-hydroxy-4-carboxy-5-ureidoimidazoline decarboxylase EC 4.1.1.n1 is an enzyme involved in purine catabolism. It catalyses the decarboxylation of 2-oxo-4-hydroxy-4-carboxy-5-ureidoimidazoline (OHCU) into S(+)-allantoin. It is the third step of the conversion of uric acid to allantoin. Step one is catalysed by urate oxidase and step two is catalysed by hydroxyisourate hydrolase.

2-hydroxy-4-carboxymuconate semialdehyde hemiacetal dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.312, 2-hydroxy-4-carboxymuconate 6-semialdehyde dehydrogenase, 4-carboxy-2-hydroxy-cis,cis-muconate-6-semialdehyde:NADP+ oxidoreductase, alpha-hydroxy-gamma-carboxymuconic epsilon-semialdehyde dehydrogenase, 4-carboxy-2-hydroxymuconate-6-semialdehyde dehydrogenase, LigC, ProD) is an enzyme with systematic name 4-carboxy-2-hydroxymuconate semialdehyde hemiacetal:NADP+ 2-oxidoreductase. This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction

FAD-dependent urate hydroxylase is an enzyme with systematic name urate,NADH:oxygen oxidoreductase . A non-homologous isofunctional enzyme (NISE) to HpxO was found, and named HpyO. HpyO was determined to be a typical Michaelian enzyme. These FAD-dependent urate hydroxylases are flavoproteins.

Bacillus fastidiosus is an aerobic, motile, rod-shaped bacterium that has been isolated from soil and poultry litter. The species was first isolated and described by the scientist Den Dooren de Jong in 1929. This organism is a mesophile that contains ellipsoidal spores that do not cause swelling of the sporangia. Bacillus fastidiosus is only able to grow in the presence of uric acid, allantoin, or allantoic acid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">15-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid</span> Chemical compound

15-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (also termed 15-HETE, 15(S)-HETE, and 15S-HETE) is an eicosanoid, i.e. a metabolite of arachidonic acid. Various cell types metabolize arachidonic acid to 15(S)-hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acid (15(S)-HpETE). This initial hydroperoxide product is extremely short-lived in cells: if not otherwise metabolized, it is rapidly reduced to 15(S)-HETE. Both of these metabolites, depending on the cell type which forms them, can be further metabolized to 15-oxo-eicosatetraenoic acid (15-oxo-ETE), 5(S),15(S)-dihydroxy-eicosatetraenoic acid (5(S),15(S)-diHETE), 5-oxo-15(S)-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (5-oxo-15(S)-HETE), a subset of specialized pro-resolving mediators viz., the lipoxins, a class of pro-inflammatory mediators, the eoxins, and other products that have less well-defined activities and functions. Thus, 15(S)-HETE and 15(S)-HpETE, in addition to having intrinsic biological activities, are key precursors to numerous biologically active derivatives.

References

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This article incorporates text from the public domain Pfam and InterPro: IPR002042