Article 18.indd

The effect of an L-amino acid oxidase isolated from Bothrops pirajai snake venom (BpirLAAO-I) was investigated on infection of Toxoplasma gondii in human foreskin fibroblasts (HFF). The cytotoxic activity of BpirLAAO-I on HFF cells showed a dose-dependent toxicity with median cytotoxic dose (TD50) of 11.8 μg/mL. BpirLAAO-I induced considerable dose-dependent decrease in the T. gondii infection index under two different conditions, treatment of tachyzoites before infection or treatment of HFF cells after infection. A maximal inhibition of infection (56%) was found for treatment before infection, with a median inhibitory dose (ID50) at 1.83 μg/mL and selectivity index (SI) at 6.45. For treatment after infection, it was observed a maximal inhibition of infection at 65%, ID50 of 1.20 μg/mL and SI of 9.83. The treatment before infection was also effective to reduce intracellular parasitism up to 62%, although presenting higher values of ID50 (3.14 μg/mL) and lower values of SI (3.76). However, treatment after infection was not effective, suggesting that the enzyme seems to have no effect on the parasite intracellular replication for this condition. In conclusion, BpirLAAO-I was more effective to inhibit the infection of neighboring cells and consequently parasite dissemination than primary infection and parasite replication. Thus, the effect of BpirLAAO-I described herein could be taken into account for the development of new synthetic anti-parasite therapeutic agents.