Therapeutic effects of xanthine oxidase inhibitors: renaissance half a century after the discovery of allopurinol.

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Pacher P, Nivorozhkin A, Szabo C

Therapeutic effects of xanthine oxidase inhibitors: renaissance half a century after the discovery of allopurinol.

Pharmacol Rev. 2006 Mar;58(1):87-114.

PubMed ID

16507884 [ View in PubMed

]

Abstract

The prototypical xanthine oxidase (XO) inhibitor allopurinol, has been the cornerstone of the clinical management of gout and conditions associated with hyperuricemia for several decades. More recent data indicate that XO also plays an important role in various forms of ischemic and other types of tissue and vascular injuries, inflammatory diseases, and chronic heart failure. Allopurinol and its active metabolite oxypurinol showed considerable promise in the treatment of these conditions both in experimental animals and in small-scale human clinical trials. Although some of the beneficial effects of these compounds may be unrelated to the inhibition of the XO, the encouraging findings rekindled significant interest in the development of additional, novel series of XO inhibitors for various therapeutic indications. Here we present a critical overview of the effects of XO inhibitors in various pathophysiological conditions and also review the various emerging therapeutic strategies offered by this approach.

DrugBank Data that Cites this Article

Drugs

Allopurinol

Drug Targets

Drug	Target	Kind	Organism	Pharmacological Action	Actions
Allopurinol	Xanthine dehydrogenase/oxidase	Protein	Humans	Yes	Inhibitor	Details

Drug Enzymes

Drug	Enzyme	Kind	Organism	Pharmacological Action	Actions
Allopurinol	Xanthine dehydrogenase/oxidase	Protein	Humans	Unknown	Inhibitor	Details

Pharmaco-metabolomics

Drug	Drug Groups	Metabolite	Change	Description
Allopurinol	Approved	Uric acid	decreased	Allopurinol decreases the level of Uric acid in the blood