Singular features of trypanosomatids’ phosphotransferases involved in cell energy management

PEREIRA, CA; BOUVIER, LEON; CAMARA, MARIA DE LOS MILAGROS; MIRANDA, MARIANA

Enzyme Research

SAGE-Hindawi

Año: 2011 vol. 2011 p. 1 - 12

2090-0414

Trypanosomatids are responsible for economically important veterinary affections and severe human diseases. In Africa,Trypanosoma brucei causes sleeping sickness or African trypanosomiasis, while in America, Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiologicalagent of Chagas disease. These parasites have complex life cycles which involve a wide variety of environments with verydifferent compositions, physicochemical properties, and availability of metabolites. As the environment changes there is a needto maintain the nucleoside homeostasis, requiring a quick and regulated response. Most of the enzymes required for energymanagement are phosphotransferases. These enzymes present a nitrogenous group or a phosphate as acceptors, and the mostclear examples are arginine kinase, nucleoside diphosphate kinase, and adenylate kinase. Trypanosoma and Leishmania have thelargest number of phosphotransferase isoforms ever found in a single cell; some of them are absent in mammals, suggestingthat these enzymes are required in many cellular compartments associated to different biological processes. The presence of suchnumber of phosphotransferases support the hypothesis of the existence of an intracellular enzymatic phosphotransfer networkthat communicates the spatially separated intracellular ATP consumption and production processes. All these unique featuresmake phosphotransferases a promising start point for rational drug design for the treatment of human trypanosomiasis.