Febuxostat

Febuxostat is a medicine that lowers blood uric acid by inhibiting xanthine oxidase, an enzyme involved in uric acid production.

Xanthine oxidase: An enzyme that catalyzes the final steps in purine breakdown to uric acid. Febuxostat binds this enzyme and reduces uric acid formation.
Gout: An inflammatory arthritis caused by monosodium urate crystals accumulating in joints and surrounding tissues. Febuxostat is prescribed to lower urate and reduce crystal formation over time.
Probenecid: A uricosuric medicine that lowers blood urate by increasing its renal excretion. It lowers urate through kidney handling rather than blocking uric acid production.
Teijin: A Japanese multinational company that developed febuxostat. Teijin discovered and developed febuxostat before its international marketing.
Purine metabolism: The network of reactions that synthesizes and breaks down purine nucleotides. Uric acid production is the endpoint of purine breakdown that febuxostat suppresses.
Hyperuricemia: An abnormally high concentration of uric acid in the blood. Reducing persistent hyperuricemia is febuxostat's central therapeutic aim.
Rasburicase: An enzyme medicine that converts uric acid into the more soluble allantoin. Unlike febuxostat's prevention of new uric acid, rasburicase removes existing uric acid rapidly.
Toru Hosoya: A Japanese physician and researcher known for work on gout and urate-lowering treatment. His clinical research contributed to the evidence base surrounding febuxostat.
Uric acid: A waste product formed when purines are broken down in humans. Febuxostat lowers its concentration in blood by reducing its production.
Treat-to-target strategy: A treatment approach that adjusts therapy toward a specified measurable clinical goal. Gout guidelines use serial serum urate measurements to guide urate-lowering doses.

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