Microbial metabolism of thiopurines: a method to measure thioguanine nucleotides

Thiopurines are anti-inflammatory prodrugs. We hypothesised that bacteria may contribute to conversion to active drug. Escherichia coli strain DH5α was evaluated to determine whether it could metabolise the thiopurine drugs, thioguanine or mercaptopurine, to thioguanine nucleotides. A rapid and reliable high performance liquid chromatography (ultraviolet detection) method was developed to quantify indirectly thioguanine nucleotides, by measuring thioguanine nucleoside