Pyrazolopyrimidine metabolism in Leishmania: an overview.

The demonstration of this unusual metabolic sequence in these organisms indicates that there are substantial differences between these protozoans and their mammalian hosts with respect to pyrazolopyrimidine metabolism. The intracellular forms of L. donovani, which are the pathogenic agents of the human disease, metabolize allopurinol identically. Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of American trypanosomiasis, metabolizes allopurinol in the same manner as leishmania; in addition, the intracellular and bloodstream forms of this organism, the agents of the disease in man, carry out the same reaction sequence. The African trypanosomes, T. rhodesiense and T. brucei also convert allopurinol to the same metabolic products. These metabolic sequences appear to be common to most of the pathogenic hemoflagellate parasites that infect man and this opens a new avenue of research in purine metabolism.