Increased level of soluble adenosine deaminase in bone marrow of visceral leishmaniasis patients: an inverse relation with parasite load

Adenosine deaminase (ADA) which degrades adenosine to inosine, is known to be pro-inflammatory molecule in many diseases. Adenosine suppresses the functioning of the immune system and thus promotes dissemination of the parasite. In our previous finding, the level of soluble ADA in serum of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) was found to be increased as compared to healthy controls. However, it cannot be fairly interpreted unless their level is demonstrated at the disease site, where the parasite resides. We designed this study to correlate the level of soluble ADA (sADA) with parasitic load at the disease site i.e. bone marrow (BM). We found increased levels of sADA in BM as compared to the unaffected BM. Furthermore, a significant inverse correlation is observed between the parasite load and level of sADA at the disease site.