INVESTIGADORES
CARRILLO carolina
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Role of the Trypanosoma cruzi pantothenate transporter (TcPPT1) in survival under stress conditions
Autor/es:
RUIZ MD; FRACCAROLI L; BALCAZAR DE; LAROCCA L; TORRES P; CARRILLO C
Reunión:
Congreso; Reunión Conjunta de Sociedades de Biociencia 2017; 2017
Institución organizadora:
Sociedades Científicas Argentinas
Resumen:
Chagas disease is an endemic parasitosis originally from Latin America, causedby the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. The current therapies are limited inefficacy and show multiple side effects based on their poor specificity. Thus,there is a need to identify new targets to develop novel tripanocidal strategies.Vitamins are essential micronutrients for all living cells; in particular B vitamins are relevant in the biology of T. cruzi. Previously, we have shown thatpantothenate, the precursor of Coenzyme A, has a key role in T. cruzimetabolism. In silico studies suggested that T. cruzi is auxotrophous for thisvitamin, and we identified a putative pantothenate transporter (TcPPT1). Theaim of this work is to study TcPPT1 role in T. cruzi proliferation under stressconditions.To approach this aim, we constructed mutant Y-GFP strain epimastigotes thatoverexpress TcPPT1 fused to a mCherry tag. Its presence and expression wereassessed by PCR, RT-PCR and fluorescence microscopy.To evaluate possible differential proliferative responses we performed culturesof wild type (mCherry) and transgenic (TcPPT1-mCherry) epimastigotes underdifferent stressing conditions: nutrient deprivation (20nM pantothenate),oxidative stress (H2O2 0-150uM) and tripanocidal drugs (Bnz and Nfx 0-100uM).Proliferation rate of TcPPT1-mCherry epimastigotes was significantly higherthan mCherry epimastigotes in low pantothenate conditions (p