Leishmania are parasitic protozoa which infect humans and cause severe morbidity and mortality. Leishmania parasitise as extracellular promastigotes in the insect vector and as intracellular amastigotes in the mammalian host. Cycling between hosts involves implementation of stringent and co-ordinated responses to shifting environmental conditions. One of the key dynamic aspects of Leishmania biology is substrate acquisition and metabolism. Genomic analyses have revealed that Leishmania encode many putative membrane transporters, many of which are differentially expressed during the parasite life cycle. Only a small fraction of these transporters, however, have been functionally characterised. Currently, most information is available about nutrient transporters, mainly involved in carbohydrate, amino acid, nucleobase and nucleoside, cofactor, and ion acquisition. Several have apparent roles in Leishmania virulence and will be discussed in this perspective.
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Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African sleeping sickness. Among the parasitology topics covered in this issue are perspectives on various aspects of trypanosome biology: Kemmerling et al. (pages 573–577) look at the immune response against Trypanosoma cruzi in the human placenta, while Maya et al. (pages 579–584) discuss therapeutic strategies in chronic Chagas cardiomyopathy, which is caused by T. cruzi. In addition, McCulloch et al. (pages 585–592) and Ooi and Rudenko (pages 593–600) explore antigenic variation in trypanosomes. Image credit: Kateryna Kon (Shutterstock ID: 520410646).
The role of membrane transporters in Leishmania virulence Available to Purchase
Roberto Docampo, Snezhana Akpunarlieva, Richard Burchmore; The role of membrane transporters in Leishmania virulence. Emerg Top Life Sci 22 December 2017; 1 (6): 601–611. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/ETLS20170119
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