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Pathogens
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Metabolism for Parasitism
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Metabolism for Parasitism

A special issue of Pathogens (ISSN 2076-0817). This special issue belongs to the section "Parasitic Pathogens".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 August 2022) | Viewed by 7825

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Guan Zhu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Zoonosis, Jilin University, Changchun, China
Interests: zoonotic protozoan parasites; apicomplexans; cryptosporidium and cryptosporidiosis; coccidia and coccidiosis; Giardia; biochemical parasitology; drug targets and drug discovery; host cell-parasite interactions
Prof. Dr. Bang Shen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
Interests: molecular mechanisms governing Toxoplasma parasitism and pathogenesis; carbon metabolism and its regulation; parasite development and differentiation; life cycle regulation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Metabolism in parasites and the metabolic interplays between parasites and their hosts are important for the survival of parasites and the establishment of parasitism. Key molecules such as essential enzymes and regulators are also common targets in the development of antiparasitic therapeutics.

Here we call for original research articles reporting new findings, as well as review articles summarizing recent progresses, on the molecules involved in the metabolism in parasites or in their hosts in response to parasitic infections. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

1) Functional characterizations of individual enzymes, regulators or chaperones in the metabolic pathways in a parasite or host in response to infection at molecular, biochemical, cellular, and/or organismal levels.

2) Role of specified macromolecules or small molecules in parasite metabolism, survival, and/or parasite–host interactions.

3) Discovery and characterization of drug targets with target validation by genetic manipulation of the target.

4) Discovery and characterization of drug targets with nanomolar to micromolar levels of antiparasitic efficacy in vitro, preferably with efficacy data in vivo.

5) Characterizations of metabolic pathways in parasites and/or hosts in response to parasitic infections by functional genomics, proteomics, and/or metabolomics approaches, providing in-depth analysis of biological meanings, preferably with some experimental validation.

6) Comprehensive or concise reviews on any topics related to parasite metabolism suitable for students, investigators, or clinician scientists in the biomedical, veterinary, or medical fields.

Prof. Dr. Guan Zhu
Prof. Dr. Bang Shen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pathogens is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • metabolic adaptation
  • enzymes
  • parasitism
  • metabolic interactions between hosts and parasites
  • nutrient sensing
  • metabolic network
  • drug targets
  • vaccines
  • diagnostic markers

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 1481 KiB  
Article
Consumption of Galactose by Trypanosoma cruzi Epimastigotes Generates Resistance against Oxidative Stress
by Ángel Lobo-Rojas, Ender Quintero-Troconis, Rocío Rondón-Mercado, Mary Carmen Pérez-Aguilar., Juan Luis Concepción and Ana Judith Cáceres
Pathogens 2022, 11(10), 1174; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens11101174 - 11 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1857
Abstract
In this study, we demonstrate that Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes previously grown in LIT medium supplemented with 20 mM galactose and exposed to sub-lethal concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (100 μM) showed two-fold and five-fold viability when compared to epimastigotes grown in LIT medium supplemented [...] Read more.
In this study, we demonstrate that Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes previously grown in LIT medium supplemented with 20 mM galactose and exposed to sub-lethal concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (100 μM) showed two-fold and five-fold viability when compared to epimastigotes grown in LIT medium supplemented with two different glucose concentrations (20 mM and 1.5 mM), respectively. Similar results were obtained when exposing epimastigotes from all treatments to methylene blue 30 μM. Additionally, through differential centrifugation and the selective permeabilization of cellular membranes with digitonin, we found that phosphoglucomutase activity (a key enzyme in galactose metabolism) occurs predominantly within the cytosolic compartment. Furthermore, after partially permeabilizing epimastigotes with digitonin (0.025 mg × mg−1 of protein), intact glycosomes treated with 20 mM galactose released a higher hexose phosphate concentration to the cytosol in the form of glucose-1-phosphate, when compared to intact glycosomes treated with 20 mM glucose, which predominantly released glucose-6-phosphate. These results shine a light on T. cruzi’s galactose metabolism and its interplay with mechanisms that enable resistance to oxidative stress. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolism for Parasitism)
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10 pages, 1362 KiB  
Article
Metabolic Alteration of Trypanosoma cruzi during Differentiation of Epimastigote to Trypomastigote Forms
by Salvatore G. De-Simone, Saulo C. Bourguignon, Priscila S. Gonçalves, Guilherme C. Lechuga and David W. Provance, Jr.
Pathogens 2022, 11(2), 268; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens11020268 - 19 Feb 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2764
Abstract
Intracellular parasites such as Trypanosoma cruzi need to acquire valuable carbon sources from the host cell to replicate. Here, we investigated the energetic metabolism of T. cruzi during metacyclogenesis through the determination of enzymatic activities and quantification by HPLC of glycolytic and Krebs [...] Read more.
Intracellular parasites such as Trypanosoma cruzi need to acquire valuable carbon sources from the host cell to replicate. Here, we investigated the energetic metabolism of T. cruzi during metacyclogenesis through the determination of enzymatic activities and quantification by HPLC of glycolytic and Krebs cycle short-chain carboxylic acids. Altered concentrations in pyruvate, acetate, succinate, and glycerate were measured during the growth of epimastigote in the complex medium BHI and their differentiation to trypomastigotes in the chemically defined medium, TAU3AAG. These alterations should represent significant differential metabolic modifications utilized by either form to generate energy. This paper is the first work dealing with the intracellular organic acid concentration measurement in T. cruzi parasites. Although it confirms the previous assumption of the importance of carbohydrate metabolism, it yields an essential improvement in T. cruzi metabolism knowledge. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolism for Parasitism)
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17 pages, 3444 KiB  
Article
Implication of Potential Differential Roles of the Two Phosphoglucomutase Isoforms in the Protozoan Parasite Cryptosporidium parvum
by Jiawen Nie, Jigang Yin, Dongqiang Wang, Chenchen Wang and Guan Zhu
Pathogens 2022, 11(1), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens11010021 - 24 Dec 2021
Viewed by 2462
Abstract
Phosphoglucomutase 1 (PGM1) catalyzes the conversion between glucose-1-phosphate and glucose-6-phosphate in the glycolysis/glucogenesis pathway. PGM1s are typically cytosolic enzymes in organisms lacking chloroplasts. However, the protozoan Cryptosporidium parasites possess two tandemly duplicated PGM1 genes evolved by a gene duplication after their split from [...] Read more.
Phosphoglucomutase 1 (PGM1) catalyzes the conversion between glucose-1-phosphate and glucose-6-phosphate in the glycolysis/glucogenesis pathway. PGM1s are typically cytosolic enzymes in organisms lacking chloroplasts. However, the protozoan Cryptosporidium parasites possess two tandemly duplicated PGM1 genes evolved by a gene duplication after their split from other apicomplexans. Moreover, the downstream PGM1 isoform contains an N-terminal signal peptide, predicting a non-cytosolic location. Here we expressed recombinant proteins of the two PGM1 isoforms from the zoonotic Cryptosporidium parvum, namely CpPGM1A and CpPGM1B, and confirmed their enzyme activity. Both isoforms followed Michaelis–Menten kinetics towards glucose-1-phosphate (Km = 0.17 and 0.13 mM, Vmax = 7.30 and 2.76 μmol/min/mg, respectively). CpPGM1A and CpPGM1B genes were expressed in oocysts, sporozoites and intracellular parasites at a similar pattern of expression, however CpPGM1A was expressed at much higher levels than CpPGM1B. Immunofluorescence assay showed that CpPGM1A was present in the cytosol of sporozoites, however this was enriched towards the plasma membranes in the intracellular parasites; whereas CpPGM1B was mainly present under sporozoite pellicle, although relocated to the parasitophorous vacuole membrane in the intracellular development. These observations indicated that CpPGM1A played a house-keeping function, while CpPGM1B played a different biological role that remains to be defined by future investigations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolism for Parasitism)
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