What does "mercaptopurine" mean?

An thiol antimetabolite C₅H₄N₄S that interferes especially with the metabolism of purine bases and the biosynthesis of nucleic acids and that is sometimes used in the treatment of acute leukemia.

What is a synonym for "mercaptopurine"?

Common synonyms include: purinethol.

How do you pronounce "mercaptopurine"?

Pronounced //mɜːˌkap.tə(ʊ)ˈp(j)ʊə.ɹiːn//.

Mercaptopurine

//mɜːˌkap.tə(ʊ)ˈp(j)ʊə.ɹiːn// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
An thiol antimetabolite C₅H₄N₄S that interferes especially with the metabolism of purine bases and the biosynthesis of nucleic acids and that is sometimes used in the treatment of acute leukemia. countable, uncountable
2
a drug (trade name Purinethol) that interferes with the metabolism of purine and is used to treat acute lymphocytic leukemia wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

purinethol

Etymology

From mercapto- + purine.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.