title: Studies on ammonia-metabolizing enzymes during Plasmodium yoelii infection and pyrimethamine treatment in mice.
abstract: Blood ammonia content and enzymes involved in ammonia metabolism, namely glutamine synthetase (GS), glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), monoamine oxidase (MAO), alanine amino-transferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), were studied in Plasmodium yoelii-infected drug-treated mice tissues. The ammonia content in blood increased with the rise of parasitaemia. Hepatic GS, GDH and MAO showed a marked decrease in enzyme activity during parasitic infection. In contrast, cerebral GS and MAO showed a significant increase during infection. However, the parallel measurement of renal enzymes did not show any noticeable alterations except for ALT and AST. Oral pyrimethamine treatment (10 mg/kg for 4 days) in infected mice (5-10%) returned the altered levels of the above enzymes to almost normal 1 week after the cessation of drug treatment.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biochemistry, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agrawal
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Tripathi
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Puri
authors.forename: V C
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Pandey
mesh_terms: D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000378:metabolism; D000641:Ammonia / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D000962:Antimalarials / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases / Q000378:metabolism; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology; D005969:Glutamate Dehydrogenase / Q000378:metabolism; D005974:Glutamate-Ammonia Ligase / Q000378:metabolism; D007668:Kidney / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology; D008099:Liver / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology; D008288:Malaria / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000201:enzymology*; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D008995:Monoamine Oxidase / Q000378:metabolism; D009928:Organ Specificity; D018512:Parasitemia / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000201:enzymology; D010967:Plasmodium yoelii; D011739:Pyrimethamine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials; D015415:Biomarkers; D000641:Ammonia; D005969:Glutamate Dehydrogenase; D008995:Monoamine Oxidase; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases; D000410:Alanine Transaminase; D005974:Glutamate-Ammonia Ligase; D011739:Pyrimethamine