ArticleInfection and immunity2011
Spermidine synthase is required for virulence of Leishmania donovani.
Article in Infection and immunity, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- 7-Prenyloxycoumarins as Promising Antileishmanial Agents: In Vitro, In Vivo, and In Silico Evaluation AgainstPharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Review
- Putrescine Depletion inPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Molecular dynamics simulation analysis of a modelled spermidine synthase fromBioinformation · 2025Article
- Polyamine Metabolism for Drug Intervention in Trypanosomatids.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Next-Generation Leishmanization: Revisiting Molecular Targets for Selecting Genetically Engineered Live-AttenuatedMicroorganisms · 2023Review
- Polyamine Metabolism inMedical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Natural Products That Target the Arginase inMicroorganisms · 2021Review
- Characterization of a highly conserved3 Biotech · 2019Article
- Polyamines in protozoan pathogens.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2018Review
- Arginine and Polyamines Fate inFrontiers in microbiology · 2017Review
- Arginase Is Essential for Survival of Leishmania donovani Promastigotes but Not Intracellular Amastigotes.Infection and immunity · 2017Article
- Spermidine Synthase is Required for Growth of Synechococcus sp. PCC 7942 Under Osmotic Stress.Current microbiology · 2016Article
- Probing the molecular mechanism of hypericin-induced parasite death provides insight into the role of spermidine beyond redox metabolism in Leishmania donovani.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2015Article
- Genetically modified organisms and visceral leishmaniasis.Frontiers in immunology · 2014Review
- Crystal structure of arginase from Leishmania mexicana and implications for the inhibition of polyamine biosynthesis in parasitic infections.Archives of biochemistry and biophysics · 2013Article
- The genetic toolbox for Leishmania parasites.Bioengineered bugsArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Genetic lesions in the polyamine biosynthetic pathway of Leishmania donovani, the causal agent of visceral leishmaniasis, are conditionally lethal mutations that render the insect vector form of the parasite auxotrophic for polyamines. Recently, we have demonstrated that a Δodc L. donovani null mutant lacking ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), the rate-limiting enzyme in polyamine biosynthesis, was profoundly compromised in its ability to infect mice, indicating that ODC is essential for the infectious mammalian stage of the parasite and further validating the enzyme as a possible drug target. To assess whether other components of the polyamine biosynthetic pathway were also essential for parasite virulence, a cell line deficient in spermidine synthase (SPDSYN), the enzyme that converts putrescine to spermidine, was created by double-targeted gene replacement within a virulent L. donovani background. This Δspdsyn strain was auxotrophic for polyamines, required spermidine for growth in its insect vector form, and was adversely impacted in its ability to infect mice. These findings establish that SPDSYN, like ODC, is essential for maintaining a robust infection in mammals and indicate that pharmacologic inhibition of SPDSYN, and perhaps all components of the polyamine biosynthetic pathway, is a valid therapeutic strategy for the treatment of visceral and, potentially, other forms of leishmaniasis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.