Robust epidemiological data link higher levels of the antioxidant urate to a reduced risk of developing Parkinson's disease (PD) and to a slower rate of its progression. Allopurinol, an inhibitor of xanthine oxidoreductase (XOR), blocks the oxidation of xanthine to urate. The present study sought to determine whether lowering levels of urate using allopurinol results in exacerbated neurotoxicit...

Renal insufficiency is common in adults with homozygous sickle cell disease, and the contribution of glomerular failure to the hyperuricaemia which is often a feature of the disease has therefore been investigated. In a study of 64 patients between the ages of 15 and 66, serum urate concentration was dependent on renal urate clearance and also on creatinine clearance. The relation between serum...

Descriptions are presented of new species of water mites from two mountains in the Malaysian part of Borneo. A new subgenus of the genus Javalbia (Hygrobatidae), i.e. Megapes n. subgen., and 34 new species are described: Limnocharidae: Limnochares (Limnochares) spinosa n. sp.; Oxidae: Oxus (Oxus) fuscus n. sp.; Hydryphantidae: Protzia borneoensis n. sp.; Sperchontidae: Sperchon kinabaluensis n....

AIMS To characterize patients with urate measurements by urate-lowering therapy (ULT) use and to study the impact of allopurinol treatment on cardiovascular and mortality outcomes. METHODS A cohort study using a record-linkage database. The study included 7135 patients aged ≥60 years with urate measurements between 2000 and 2002 followed up until 2007. A Cox regression model was used. The ass...

D iseases traditionally associated with hyperuricemia include acute urate nephropathy, gouty arthropathy, and nephrolithiasis. In recent years, however, understanding of additional adverse effects of hyperuricemia has been advanced. Early scientific literature suggested an association between serum urate concentration and incidence of cardiovascular disease, but the field lay relatively dormant...

Studies on hypouricaemia observed in a patient with 48,XXYY syndrome revealed an abnormality in renal urate handling. His renal urate clearance was abnormally increased. Inosine administration and provocative tests using probenecid and pyrazinamide identified an isolated renal tubular abnormality with increased urate secretion. Since the serum urate in his brother with a normal sex chromosome c...

1. The demonstration of an inheritable anomaly of erythrocyte oxalate transport in 'primary' calcium nephrolithiasis suggested that this disease might be a generalized metabolic disorder characterized by a defect in cellular anion transport. 2. To determine whether this anomaly is restricted to oxalate alone, we studied erythrocyte transmembrane urate self-exchange in calcium-oxalate renal ston...

Hemocyanin serves as an oxygen carrier in the hemolymph of the European lobster Homarus vulgaris. The oxygen binding behavior of the pigment is modulated by metabolic effectors such as lactate and urate. Urate and caffeine binding to 12-meric hemocyanin (H. vulgaris) was studied using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). Binding isotherms were determined for fully oxygenated hemocyanin betwe...

BACKGROUND Mounting evidence shows that urate may become a biomarker of Parkinson's disease (PD) diagnosis and prognosis and a neuroprotectant candidate for PD therapy. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying its neuroprotective actions remain poorly understood. RESULTS In this study, we showed that urate pretreatment protected dopaminergic cell line (SH-SY5Y and MES23.5) ag...

BACKGROUND Urate through Nacht Domain, Leucine-Rich Repeat, and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NALP3) dependent caspase-1 activation stimulates macrophages to secrete inteleukin-1β (IL-1β). Purinergic receptor P2X7 plays a role in the urate induced NALP3 activation. Urate also enhances adaptive immunity indirectly through its effect on antigen presenting cells. In this study, the direct eff...