Science
The importance of nucleosides and nucleotides in the maintenance of systems within the body that have limited de novo synthesis of purine and pyrimidine bases is becoming well established. The intestinal mucosa, the brain and the immune system are examples of such systems. Intraperitoneal administration of nucleosides and nucleotides decreased bacterial translocation, the number of colony-forming units, and increased survival against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. In vitro immune studies in mice showed that nucleosides and nucleotides increase the delayed-type cutaneous hypersensitivity and the popliteal lymph node blastogenic response to antigens, allogens, and mitogens. Memory-deficient senescence-accelerated mice and mice with dementia showed improved memory with dietary nucleosides and nucleotides supplementation. These results and others indicate that the introduction of nucleosides and nucleotides is beneficial to the functions of these systems..
Nucleosides are glycosylamines consisting of a nucleoside base bound to a ribose or deoxyribose sugar. Examples of these include cytidine, uridine, adenosine, guanosine, thymidine and inosine. Nucleosides can be phosphorylated to produce nucleotides which are the molecular building blocks of DNA and RNA.
Inosine
Inosine is one such nucleoside that is formed when hypoxanthine is attached to a ribose ring (also known as a ribofuranose) via a β-N9-glycosidic bond. Inosine is commonly found in tRNAs and is essential for proper translation of the genetic code in wobble base pairs.