Human xanthine oxidase recombinant in E. coli: A whole cell catalyst for preparative drug metabolite synthesis.

Human xanthine oxidoreductase (XOR), which is responsible for the final steps of the purine metabolism pathway and involved in oxidative drug metabolism, was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) Gold. Recombinant human (rh) XOR yielded higher productivity with the gene sequence optimized for expression in E.coli than with the native gene sequence.