Inositolphosphoceramide in glycoinositolphospholipidsof Trypanosoma cruzi. Formation and remodeling during differentiation

MUCHNIK DE LEDERKREMER, ROSA

Buzios

Congreso; International Congress of Protistology; 2009

Brazilian Society of protozoology

The lipid moiety in glycosylphosphatidyl inositols (GPIs) can be quite variable. A glycerolipid or a ceramide   have been found in the inositolphospholipid  (IPL) linked to the glycan. The ceramide species is an amphipatic lipid that has a long chain base of the sphingosine family as backbone and a fatty acid as amide. At difference with the glycerolipid, this structure is resistant to saponification and thus, may be chemically differentiated. Ceramide is present in the anchor of glycoproteins actively shed to the medium like the trans-sialidase of trypomastigotes  , the Ssp4 glycoprotein of amastigotes  and the mucins of metacyclic forms  . In epimastigotes , free glycoinositolphosholipids  (GIPLs) are the major components of the cell surface and depending on the age of the culture an alkyl acyl glycerol  or a ceramide was  determined as the lipid component . Hexadecylpalmitoylglycerol was found in parasites collected at the logarithmic phase of growth whereas it changes to ceramide in the stationary phase . Mammalian cells do not synthesize inositolphosphoceramide (IPC) but incorporate ceramide into sphingomyelin  Thus, the metabolic pathway for the biosynthesis of IPC is a good target for the development of chemotherapeutic agents.