Phenotypic analysis of trypanothione synthetase knockdown in the African trypanosome.

Trypanothione plays a pivotal role in defence against chemical and oxidant stress, thiol redox homoeostasis, ribonucleotide metabolism and drug resistance in parasitic kinetoplastids. In Trypanosoma brucei, trypanothione is synthesized from glutathione and spermidine by a single enzyme, TryS (trypanothione synthetase), with glutathionylspermidine as an intermediate. To examine the physiological roles of trypanothione, tetracycline-inducible RNA interference was used to reduce expression of TRYS. Following induction, TryS protein was reduced >10-fold and growth rate was reduced 2-fold, with concurrent 5-10-fold decreases in glutathionylspermidine and trypanothione and an up to 14-fold increase in free glutathione content. Polyamine levels were not significantly different from non-induced controls, and neither was the intracellular thiol redox potential, indicating that these factors are not responsible for the growth defect. Compensatory changes in other pathway enzymes were associated with prolonged suppression of TryS: an increase in trypanothione reductase and gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase, and a transient decrease in ornithine decarboxylase. Depleted trypanothione levels were associated with increases in sensitivity to arsenical, antimonial and nitro drugs, implicating trypanothione metabolism in their mode of action. Escape mutants arose after 2 weeks of induction, with all parameters, including growth, returning to normal. Selective inhibitors of TryS are required to fully validate this novel drug target.

Properties of trypanothione synthetase from Trypanosoma brucei.

Trypanothione [N(1),N(8)-bis(glutathionyl)spermidine] plays a central role in defence against oxidant damage, ribonucleotide metabolism and in resistance to certain drugs in trypanosomatids. In Crithidia fasciculata, synthesis of trypanothione involves sequential conjugation of two molecules of glutathione (GSH) to spermidine by two enzymes: glutathionylspermidine synthetase (GspS; EC 6.3.1.8) and trypanothione synthetase (TryS; EC 6.3.1.9), whereas in Trypanosoma cruzi both steps are catalysed by an unusual TryS with broad substrate specificity. To determine which route operates in T. brucei, we have cloned and expressed a single copy gene with similarity to C. fasciculata and T. cruzi TRYS. The purified recombinant protein catalyses formation of trypanothione from either spermidine and GSH, or glutathionylspermidine and GSH. The enzyme displays high substrate inhibition with GSH as variable substrate (apparent K(m)=56 microM, K(i)(s)=37 microM, k(cat)=2.9s(-1)). At a fixed subsaturating GSH concentration (100 microM), the enzyme obeys simple hyperbolic kinetics yielding apparent K(m) values for spermidine, glutathionylspermidine and MgATP of 38, 2.4, and 7.1 microM, respectively. Recombinant TryS can also catalyse conversion of spermine to glutathionylspermine and bis(glutathionyl)spermine, as recently reported for T. cruzi. The enzyme has amidase activity that can be inhibited by iodoacetamide. Studies using GSH and polyamine analogues identified GSH as the critical determinant for recognition by the amidase domain. Thus, the biosynthesis and degradation of trypanothione are similar in African and American trypanosomes, and different from the insect trypanosomatid, C. fasciculata.

Activity of megazol, a trypanocidal nitroimidazole, is associated with DNA damage.

DNA damage associated with the trypanocidal activity of megazol [2-amino-5-(1-methyl-5-nitro-2-imidazolyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole] was shown in experiments in which DNA repair-deficient RAD51(-/-) Trypanosoma brucei mutants were found to be hypersensitive to the drug. Parasites resistant to megazol were selected and showed modest cross-resistance to other trypanocides, although neither drug efflux nor changes to intracellular thiols correlated with resistance.

Bis(glutathionyl)spermine and other novel trypanothione analogues in Trypanosoma cruzi.

Trypanosomatids differ from other cells in their ability to conjugate glutathione with the polyamine spermidine to form the antioxidant metabolite trypanothione (N1,N8-bis(glutathionyl)spermidine). In Trypanosoma cruzi, trypanothione is synthesized by an unusual trypanothione synthetase/amidase (TcTryS) that forms both glutathionylspermidine and trypanothione. Because T. cruzi is unable to synthesize putrescine and is dependent on uptake of exogenous polyamines by high affinity transporters, synthesis of trypanothione may be circumstantially limited by lack of spermidine. Here, we show that the parasite is able to circumvent the potential shortage of spermidine by conjugating glutathione with other physiological polyamine substrates from exogenous sources (spermine, N8-acetylspermidine, and N-acetylspermine). Novel thiols were purified from epimastigotes, and structures were determined by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight analysis to be N1,N12-bis(glutathionyl)spermine, N1-glutathionyl-N8-acetylspermidine, and N1-glutathionyl-N12-acetylspermine, respectively. Structures were confirmed by enzymatic synthesis with recombinant TcTryS, which catalyzes formation of these compounds with kinetic parameters equivalent to or better than those of spermidine. Despite containing similar amounts of spermine and spermidine, the epimastigotes, trypomastigotes, and amastigotes of T. cruzi preferentially synthesized trypanothione. Bis(glutathionyl)spermine disulfide is a physiological substrate of recombinant trypanothione reductase, comparable to trypanothione and homotrypanothione disulfides. The broad substrate specificity of TcTryS could be exploited in the design of polyamine-based inhibitors of trypanothione metabolism.

A single enzyme catalyses formation of Trypanothione from glutathione and spermidine in Trypanosoma cruzi.

Protozoa of the order Kinetoplastida differ from other organisms in their ability to conjugate glutathione (l-gamma-glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine) and spermidine to form trypanothione [N(1),N(8)-bis(glutathionyl)spermidine], a metabolite involved in defense against chemical and oxidant stress and other biosynthetic functions. In Crithidia fasciculata, trypanothione is synthesized from GSH and spermidine via the intermediate glutathionylspermidine in two distinct ATP-dependent reactions catalyzed by glutathionylspermidine synthetase (GspS; EC ) and trypanothione synthetase (TryS; EC ), respectively. Here we have cloned a single copy gene (TcTryS) from Trypanosoma cruzi encoding a protein with 61% sequence identity with CfTryS but only 31% with CfGspS. Saccharomyces cerevisiae transformed with TcTryS were able to synthesize glutathionylspermidine and trypanothione, suggesting that this enzyme is able to catalyze both biosynthetic steps, unlike CfTryS. When cultures were supplemented with aminopropylcadaverine, yeast transformants contained glutathionylaminopropylcadaverine and homotrypanothione [N(1),N(9)-bis(glutathionyl)aminopropylcadaverine], metabolites that have been previously identified in T. cruzi, but not in C. fasciculata. Kinetic studies on recombinant TcTryS purified from Escherichia coli revealed that the enzyme displays high-substrate inhibition with glutathione (K(m) and K(i) of 0.57 and 1.2 mm, respectively, and k(cat) of 3.4 s(-1)), but obeys Michaelis-Menten kinetics with spermidine, aminopropylcadaverine, glutathionylspermidine, and MgATP as variable substrate. The recombinant enzyme possesses weak amidase activity and can hydrolyze trypanothione, homotrypanothione, or glutathionylspermidine to glutathione and the corresponding polyamine.

Characterization of recombinant glutathionylspermidine synthetase/amidase from Crithidia fasciculata.

Trypanothione [N1,N8-bis(glutathionyl)spermidine] is a unique metabolite found only in trypanosomatids, where it subsumes many of the functions of GSH in other organisms. In Crithidia fasciculata, two distinct ATP-dependent ligases, glutathionylspermidine synthetase (GspS; EC 6.3.1.8) and trypanothione synthetase (TryS; EC 6.3.1.9), are involved in the synthesis of trypanothione from GSH and spermidine. Both enzymes have been cloned previously, but expression in Escherichia coli produced insoluble and inactive protein. Here we report on the successful expression of soluble (His)6-tagged C. fasciculata GspS in E. coli. Following purification using nickel-chelating affinity chromatography, the tag sequence was removed and the enzyme purified to homogeneity by anion-exchange chromatography. The kinetic parameters of the recombinant enzyme have been determined using a coupled enzyme assay and also by HPLC analysis of end-product formation. Under optimal conditions (0.1 M K+-Hepes, pH 7.3) GspS has synthetase activity with apparent K(m) values for GSH, spermidine and MgATP of 242, 59 and 114 microM respectively, and a k(cat) of 15.5 s(-1). Glutathionylspermidine is formed as end product and the enzyme lacks TryS activity. Like E. coli GspS, the recombinant enzyme also possesses amidase activity (EC 3.5.1.78), hydrolysing glutathionylspermidine to GSH and spermidine with a k(cat) of 0.38 s(-1) and a K(m) of 500 microM. GspS can also hydrolyse trypanothione at about 1.5% of the rate with glutathionylspermidine. A single amino acid mutation (Cys-79-->Ala) is shown to ablate the amidase activity without affecting the synthetase activity.