Differences in allopurinol and 4-aminopyrazolo(3,4-d) pyrimidine metabolism in drug-sensitive and insensitive strains of Trypanosoma cruzi.

Most freshly isolated Trypanosoma cruzi blood trypomastigotes were insensitive to allopurinol (HPP) and 4-aminopyrazolo(3,4-d)pyrimidine (APP). Strains EP and Ya were, however, strongly inhibited by both drugs while strains DS and A-35 were HPP-insensitive but APP-sensitive. In contrast, epimastigotes resulting from one in vitro passage of all eleven T. cruzi strains were highly sensitive to both drugs. While hypoxanthine/guanine and adenine phosphoribosyltransferase and succino-AMP synthetase activities were similar in trypomastigotes of sensitive and insensitive T. cruzi strains, the uptake and metabolism of [14C]HPP and [14C]APP was significantly slower in T. cruzi trypomastigotes of insensitive strains than in sensitive strains. The results suggest the importance of drug uptake rates in determining the pyrazolopyrimidine sensitivity of different T. cruzi strains.