Trypanosoma cruzi polyamine transporter: its role on parasite growth and survival under stress conditions

REIGADA C; SAYE M; VALERA VERA EA; BALCAZAR D; FRACCAROLI L; CARRILLO C; MIRANDA MR; CLAUDIO PEREIRA

JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE BIOLOGY

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2016

0022-2631

Chagas disease, a major health problem in Latin America.Polyamines are polycationic compounds that play a criticalrole as regulators of cell growth and differentiation. Incontrast with other protozoa, T. cruzi is auxotrophic forpolyamines because of its inability to synthesize putrescinedue to the lack of both, arginine and ornithine decarboxylase;therefore, the intracellular availability ofpolyamines depends exclusively on transport processes. Inthis work, the polyamine transporter TcPAT12 was overexpressedin T. cruzi epimastigotes demonstrating thatgrowth rates at different concentrations of polyaminesstrongly depend on the regulation of the polyamine transport.In addition, parasites overexpressing TcPAT12showed a highly increased resistance to hydrogen peroxideand the trypanocidal drugs nifurtimox and benznidazole,which act by oxidative stress and interfering the synthesisof polyamine derivatives, respectively. Finally, the presenceof putative polyamine transporters was analyzed in T.cruzi, Trypanosoma brucei, and Leishmania major genomesidentifying 3?6 genes in these trypanosomatids.