Quintana, J.F.; Pino, R.C.D.; Yamada, K.; Zhang, N. Adaptation and Therapeutic Exploitation of the Plasma Membrane of African Trypanosomes. Genes2018, 9, 368.
Quintana, J.F.; Pino, R.C.D.; Yamada, K.; Zhang, N. Adaptation and Therapeutic Exploitation of the Plasma Membrane of African Trypanosomes. Genes 2018, 9, 368.
Quintana, J.F.; Pino, R.C.D.; Yamada, K.; Zhang, N. Adaptation and Therapeutic Exploitation of the Plasma Membrane of African Trypanosomes. Genes2018, 9, 368.
Quintana, J.F.; Pino, R.C.D.; Yamada, K.; Zhang, N. Adaptation and Therapeutic Exploitation of the Plasma Membrane of African Trypanosomes. Genes 2018, 9, 368.
Abstract
African trypanosomes are an early branch in eukaryotic evolution and developed a unique endomembrane system as an adaptation to their parasitic life style. The key virulence mechanism of many pathogens is successful immune evasion to enable survival within the host, which is a feature requiring both genetic events and membrane transport in African trypanosomes. Intracellular trafficking not only plays a role in immune evasion, but also in homeostasis of intracellular and extracellular compartments and interactions with the environment. Significantly, historical and recent work has unravelled some of the connections between these processes and highlighted how immune evasion mechanisms associated with adaptations in membrane trafficking may have, paradoxically, provided specific sensitivity to drugs. Here we explore these advances in understanding the membrane composition of the trypanosome plasma membrane and organelles and provide a perspective for how transport could be exploited for therapeutic purpose.
Keywords
Trypanosoma brucei; surface proteome; endomembrane system; endocytosis; drug development
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Immunology and Microbiology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
