Silva, Eduardo de Almeida Marques daOliveira, Jamile Camargos deFigueiredo, Amanda Braga deLima Júnior, Djalma de SouzaCarneiro, Cláudia MartinsFietto, Juliana Lopes RangelAfonso, Luís Carlos Crocco2012-09-192012-09-192008SILVA, E. de A. M. da et al. Extracellular nucleotide metabolism in Leishmania : influence of adenosine in the establishment of infection. Microbes and Infection, v. 10, n. 8, p. 850-857, jul. 2008. Disponível em: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1286457908001202>. Acesso em: 19 ago. 2012.12864579http://www.repositorio.ufop.br/handle/123456789/1404Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease with a variety of clinical forms, which are related to the Leishmania species involved. In the murine model, Leishmania amazonensis causes chronic non-healing lesions in Leishmania braziliensis- or Leishmania major-resistant mouse strains. In this study, we investigated the involvement of the pathway of extracellular nucleotide hydrolysis, with special focus on the role of extracellular adenosine, in the establishment of Leishmania infection. Our results show that the more virulent parasitedL. Amazonensisdhydrolyzes higher amounts of ATP, ADP and AMP than the two other species, probably due to the higher expression of membrane NTPDase. Corroborating the idea that increased production of adenosine is important to lesion development and establishment of tissue parasitism, we observed that increased 50-nucleotidase activity in L. braziliensis or addition of adenosine at the moment of infection with this parasite resulted in an increase in lesion size and parasitism as well as a delay in lesion healing. Furthermore, inhibition of adenosine receptor A2B led to decreased lesion size and parasitism. Thus, our results suggest that the conversion of ATP, a molecule with pro-inflammatory activity, into adenosine, which possesses immunomodulatory properties, may contribute to the establishment of infection by Leishmania.en-USEcto-nucleotidaseAdenosineLeishmaniaArtigo publicado em periodicoO periódico Microbes and Infection concede permissão para depósito deste artigo no Repositório Institucional da UFOP. Número da licença: 3281990186750.