The parasite-specific trypanothione metabolism
نویسنده
چکیده
Trypanosomes and leishmania are the causative agents of African sleeping sickness (Trypanosoma brucei), South American Chagas’ disease (T. cruzi) and other tropical diseases. All these parasitic protozoa have a unique thiol metabolism. Instead of the ubiquitous glutathione, the main non-protein thiol is trypanothione [bis(glutathionyl)spermidine] which is kept reduced by the flavoenzyme trypanothione reductase (Figure 1). Aim of our work is to elucidate the specific functions of the trypanothione metabolism and to contribute to the development of new antiparasitic drugs on the basis of specific enzyme inhibitors.
منابع مشابه
The parasite-specific trypanothione redox metabolism
Research Highlights Dissecting the mechanism of trypanothione synthetase under in vivo-like conditions All proteins of the trypanothione metabolism are indispensable for the viability of African trypanosomes. A final conclusion as to which protein plays a main role in the pathway control yet would need a reliable model based on the kinetic parameters of all enzymes obtained under conditions tha...
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