Clinical Chemistry, Vol 35, 1478-1481, Copyright © 1989 by American Association for Clinical Chemistry

Depressed activities of purine enzymes in lymphocytes of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus

JA Renouf, A Wood, IH Frazer, YH Thong and AH Chalmers
Department of Pathology, Mater Misericordiae Public Hospital, Queensland, Australia.

Enzyme activities were studied in peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients infected with, or at risk for, infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). No significant differences were observed in the HIV-infected and HIV-seronegative high-risk patients with regard to enzyme activities of hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (EC 2.4.2.8) and purine nucleoside phosphorylase (EC 2.4.2.1) in peripheral blood. Adenosine deaminase (EC 3.5.4.4) was significantly (P less than 0.02) depressed in asymptomatic HIV-seropositive patients and HIV-seronegative patients at high risk of HIV infection as compared with a healthy HIV-seronegative population. Adenosine kinase (AK, EC 2.7.1.20) was significantly increased in the asymptomatic seropositive (P less than 0.02) and also in the HIV-seronegative high-risk groups (P = 0.01) compared with the normal controls. AK activity was significantly lower in subjects with AIDS than in the asymptomatic (P less than 0.002) and high-risk groups (P less than 0.01). Taken together, these results indicate that adenosine deaminase and AK activities are influenced by the health of the patient, and that measurement of AK activity may prove useful in monitoring the clinical progress of patients with HIV infection.

The following articles in journals at HighWire Press have cited this article:

				D. Wilson, F. Rudolph, and F. Quiocho Atomic structure of adenosine deaminase complexed with a transition-state analog: understanding catalysis and immunodeficiency mutations Science, May 31, 1991; 252(5010): 1278 - 1284. [Abstract] [PDF]