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Encyclopedia of Malaria pp 1–11Cite as

Purine and Pyrimidine Pathways

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Synonyms

Deoxypyrimidine nucleotide/nucleoside metabolism; Nucleoside salvage; Purine recycle pathway; Purine salvage pathway; Pyrimidine deoxyribonucleotide de novo biosynthesis

Definitions

Plasmodium falciparum makes use of the purine salvage and pyrimidine de novo pathways to synthesize nucleic acids to meet the parasite’s requirement for rapid replication. Enzymes that compose these pathways pose as attractive drug targets for disease control in humans.

Purine Salvage Pathway

Plasmodium falciparum has a high demand for purine nucleotides during the extensive DNA replication that takes place throughout the blood and liver stages. Since most parasitic protozoa lack a de novo purine nucleotide biosynthetic pathway (Sherman 1979), they rely exclusively on the salvage of preformed purines from the host to supply the requirement for purines (de Koning et al. 2005). The fact that Plasmodium parasites are purine auxotrophs (Büngener and Nielsen 1968) has made the enzymes comprising the...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biochemistry Department, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA

    Hilda A. Namanja-Magliano, Rodrigo G. Ducati & Vern L. Schramm

Authors
  1. Hilda A. Namanja-Magliano
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  2. Rodrigo G. Ducati
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  3. Vern L. Schramm
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hilda A. Namanja-Magliano or Rodrigo G. Ducati .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Heswall, United Kingdom

    Marcel Hommel

  2. Institut für Tropenmedizin, Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Peter G. Kremsner

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Namanja-Magliano, H.A., Ducati, R.G., Schramm, V.L. (2013). Purine and Pyrimidine Pathways. In: Hommel, M., Kremsner, P. (eds) Encyclopedia of Malaria. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8757-9_23-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8757-9_23-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-8757-9

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