Purine nucleosidase () is an enzyme that catalyzes the general chemical reaction
a purine nucleoside + H2O a purine base + D-ribose
For example, the enzyme hydrolyses adenosine to adenine and D-ribose:
The enzyme occurs in a wide range of organisms, and its mechanism of action has been studied, showing that water acts as a general acid to protonate the departing nucleobase anion. Purine nucleosidases have been studied as a way to alleviate hyperuricemia.
The enzyme is a hydrolase, specifically a glycosylase that hydrolyses N-glycosyl compounds. The systematic name of this enzyme class is purine-nucleoside ribohydrolase. Other names in use include nucleosidase, purine beta-ribosidase, purine nucleoside hydrolase, purine ribonucleosidase, ribonucleoside hydrolase, nucleoside hydrolase, N-ribosyl purine ribohydrolase, nucleosidase g, N-D-ribosylpurine ribohydrolase, inosine-adenosine-guanosine preferring nucleoside hydrolase, purine-specific nucleoside N-ribohydrolase, IAG-nucleoside hydrolase, and IAG-NH.
Structural studies As of late 2007, 11 structures have been solved for this class of enzymes, with PDB accession codes , , , , , , , , , , and .
References