3,5,2′,4′-Tetrahydroxychalcone, a new non-purine xanthine oxidase inhibitor

Xanthine oxidase is a key enzyme that catalyses hypoxanthine and xanthine to uric acid and the overproduction of uric acid will lead to hyperuricemia which is an important cause of gout. In the present study, three chalcone derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for inhibitory activity against xanthine oxidase in vitro. Of the compounds, only Compound 1, 3,5,2′,4′-tetrahydroxychalcone, exhibited a significant inhibitory activity on xanthine oxidase with an IC50 value of 22.5 μM. Lineweaver–Burk transformation of the inhibition kinetics data demonstrated that it was a competitive inhibitor of xanthine oxidase and Ki value was 17.4 μM. In vivo, intragastric administration of Compound 1 was able to significantly reduce serum uric acid levels and inhibited hepatic xanthine oxidase activities of hyperuricemic mice in a dose-dependent manner. Acute toxicity study in mice showed that Compound 1 was very safe at a dose of up to 5 g/kg. These results suggest that Compound 1 is a novel competitive xanthine oxidase inhibitor and is worthy of further development.