Purine metabolism in Leishmania donovani amastigotes and promastigotes.

Purine metabolism in Leishmania donovani amastigotes was found to be similar to that of promastigotes with the exception of adenosine metabolism. Adenosine kinase activity in amastigotes is approximately 50-fold greater than in promastigotes. Amastigotes deaminate adenosine to inosine through adenosine deaminase, an enzyme not present in promastigotes. Inosine is cleaved to hypoxanthine and phosphoribosylated by hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase. Promastigotes cleave adenosine to adenine and deaminate adenine to hypoxanthine via adenase, an enzyme not present in amastigotes. Hypoxanthine is phosphoribosylated by hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase.