Transient knockdown of gene expression as a therapeutic target in by antisense RNA: and studies.

Leishmania parasites cause various clinical symptoms in humans such as cutaneous ulcers and fatal visceral diseases. These parasites cannot synthesize purine rings de novo and must uptake purines from their hosts via salvage. Salvage is regulated by permeases in the cell membrane. There are hundreds of membrane transporter proteins to receive nutrients in Leishmania. Nucleoside transporter 4 (NT4) is one of the purine transporters that is involved in enhancing the uptake of adenine in Leishmania major. They are important new drug targets for the treatment of leishmaniasis because they can be used to transport toxic purine analogs to kill parasitic cells， thus preventing the progression of the infection. The present study was conducted to silence the NT4 nucleobase involved in the salvage pathway to interrupt purine nucleotide membrane transport in the cells of L. major.