Diet and purines Prof David Perrett William Harvey Research Institute Barts & the London School of Medicine

You are what you eat! or

Gout A disease of good living ? A disease of lifestyle?

What are you made of Protein Fats Carbohydrates Oligonucleotides Inorganic materials and of course Water

70% of your body is water

Reference Man

Reference Woman

Body Composition Methods Direct Assessment - Cadaver (Dissection v chemical analyses) Body Composition of 5 Cadavers Water Protein Fat ASH Remainder Percent Body Weight

Gross Composition of Human Body Body composition analysis often focuses on the tissue and whole body levels of multi-component model.

Protein

Fats - Lipids

Sugars Bread also contains yeast

Water

Nucleic acids and purines We eats these as DNA and RNA Purine bases IMP and possibly ATP Ischemic catabolites e.g. Hypoxanthine, urate

Minor Nutrients VitaminsMetalsCo-enzymes

Digestion Large molecules must be broken down to smaller molecules Then they can pass through the gut and enter the blood stream Then they can enter cells where some molecules can be directly used for macromolecule synthesis others will enter metabolic processes. Some of the individual protein units (amino acids) cannot be made by the body and are said to be essential. Not the case with purines and pyrimidines

Nucleic acids and purines Purines and pyrimidines can be made by our bodies. This de novo synthesis takes a lot of energy so nature tries to re-use the purine and pyrimidine ring structures for ATP, etc and DNA & RNA synthesis.

Nucleic acids and purines Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) – our energy metabolite ATP is essential for every breath we take

Partial Metabolic Pathway for ATP degradation ATP AMP IMP Hypoxanthine Xanthine 5NT HPRTase Xanthine Oxidase Urate Adenosine Inosine Xanthine Oxidase DNA

Hypoxanthine Increases in food on storage Related to the taste of meat and meat

Plant Purines Theobromine Caffeine Tea, coffee, Also soft drinks Chocolate

Gut Bacteria The average human consists of ca (ten trillion) cells. We have about ten times that number of microorganisms in our gut. There's an estimated 500 different bacterial species in the intestine. The metabolic activity performed by these bacteria equal to that of a virtual organ making the gut bacteria a "forgotten" organ. E. Coli

Seoul – South Korea 2007