Plasmodium falciparum liver stage antigen-1 is cross-linked by tissue transglutaminase.
Malar J
; 10: 14, 2011 Jan 21.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-21255444
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites injected by mosquitoes into the blood rapidly enter liver hepatocytes and undergo pre-erythrocytic developmental schizogony forming tens of thousands of merozoites per hepatocyte. Shortly after hepatocyte invasion, the parasite starts to produce Liver Stage Antigen-1 (LSA-1), which accumulates within the parasitophorous vacuole surrounding the mass of developing merozoites. The LSA-1 protein has been described as a flocculent mass, but its role in parasite development has not been determined.METHODS:
Recombinant N-terminal, C-terminal or a construct containing both the N- and C- terminal regions flanking two 17 amino acid residue central repeat sequences (LSA-NRC) were subjected to in vitro modification by tissue transglutaminase-2 (TG2) to determine if cross-linking occurred. In addition, tissue sections of P. falciparum-infected human hepatocytes were probed with monoclonal antibodies to the isopeptide ε-(γ-glutamyl)lysine cross-bridge formed by TG2 enzymatic activity to determine if these antibodies co-localized with antibodies to LSA-1 in the growing liver schizonts.RESULTS:
This study identified a substrate motif for (TG2) and a putative casein kinase 2 phosphorylation site within the central repeat region of LSA-1. The function of TG2 is the post-translational modification of proteins by the formation of a unique isopeptide ε-(γ-glutamyl)lysine cross-bridge between glutamine and lysine residues. When recombinant LSA-1 protein was crosslinked in vitro by purified TG2 in a calcium dependent reaction, a flocculent mass of protein was formed that was highly resistant to degradation. The cross-linking was not detectably affected by phosphorylation with plasmodial CK2 in vitro. Monoclonal antibodies specific to the very unique TG2 catalyzed ε- lysine cross-bridge co-localized with antibodies to LSA-1 in infected human hepatocytes providing visual evidence that LSA-1 was cross-linked in vivo.CONCLUSIONS:
While the role of LSA-1 is still unknown these results suggest that it becomes highly cross-linked which may aid in the protection of the parasite as it develops.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Plasmodium falciparum
/
Transglutaminases
/
Malária Falciparum
/
Interações Hospedeiro-Parasita
/
Fígado
/
Antígenos de Protozoários
Limite:
Animals
/
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Malar J
Assunto da revista:
MEDICINA TROPICAL
Ano de publicação:
2011
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos