In arthritis, there is deposition of urate crystals in joints. If you want to treat the arthritis by decreasing the concentration of circulating uric acid, what will you do with its mechanism in kidney?

Answer and explanation:

If I'd wanted to decrease the concentration of circulating uric acid by altering its mechanism in the kidney, I would administer a drug that would inhibit uric acid reabsorption and increase its excretion through urine.

Arthritis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the joints and can be caused by many diseases. When the cause of this arthritis is the deposition of urate crystals in the joint because of an increase in the concentration of circulating uric acid (hyperuricemia) we are most likely talking about gout, a painful disease that can deform the joints.

Hyperuricemia and gout have many risk factors associated with them, such as genetic predisposition, unhealthy diet, and suffering from other conditions like Diabetes.

Several medications are used in the treatment of the symptoms and the prevention of the worsening of this disease, but the one that is most frequently used to increase the excretion of uric acid is Probenecid. Probenecid blocks the kidney's OAT (organic anion transporter) that reabsorbs uric acid in the kidney tubules, thus enhancing its excretion and decreasing uric acid's blood concentration.

"1. it should be, it has been for about 20 years, and it's really not much different in the end than breeding animals to have particular traits. there are always concerns about genetically engineered animals/plants affecting the environment in unexpected negative ways, but i can't think of an example where the fears didn't turn out to be baseless.  

first, as you point out, it would be a great advance in pharmacology, to be able to tailor drugs and their doses to me. the pros involve better medical treatment. the cons involve privacy issues like insurance companies denying coverage to people with genetic risk factors. looking at dna markers wouldn't affect the frequency of genetic diseases, but it would allow detection of them earlier. and ok, actually i suppose that if people used this information to avoid having children with genetic diseases, some might decrease in frequency."