Paraxanthine is not known to be produced by plants but is observed in nature as a metabolite of caffeine in animals and some species of bacteria.
Paraxanthine is the primary metabolite of caffeine in humans and other animals, such as mice. Shortly after ingestion, roughly 84% of caffeine is metabolized into paraxanthine by hepatic cytochrome P450, which removes a methyl group from the N3 position of caffeine. After formation, paraxanthine can be broken down to 7-methylxanthine by demethylation of the N1 position, which is subsequently demethylated into xanthine or oxidized by CYP2A6 and CYP1A2 into 1,7-dimethyluric acid. In another pathway, paraxanthine is broken down into 5-acetylamino-6-formylamino-3-methyluracil through N-acetyl-transferase 2, which is then broken down into 5-acetylamino-6-amino-3-methyluracil by non-enzymatic decomposition. In yet another pathway, paraxanthine is metabolized CYPIA2 forming 1-methyl-xanthine, which can then be metabolized by xanthine oxidase to form 1-methyl-uric acid.
Certain proposed synthetic pathways of caffeine make use of paraxanthine as a bypass intermediate. However, its absence in plant alkaloid assays implies that these are infrequently, if ever, directly produced by plants.
Paraxanthine is a phosphodiesterase type 9 (PDE9) inhibitor and it is sold as a research molecule for this same purpose.
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