Don't bother to knock--the cell invasion strategy of Trypanosoma cruzi.
The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi is responsible for Chagas disease, a serious debilitating disease that affects millions of people in Latin America. Trypomastigotes, the infective forms, are capable of invading and replicating in different cell types. The invasion process involves a gradual recruitment and fusion of host cell lysosomes at the parasite entry site, and is regulated by intracellular free Ca2+ transients triggered by trypomastigotes in host cells. This unusual, Ca2+-dependent lysosome exocytosis pathway was recently shown to be involved in the mechanism by which mammalian cells repair lesions on their plasma membrane.
Tan
Henry
H
Section of Microbial Pathogenesis and Dept of Cell Biology, Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, 295 Congress Avenue, New Haven, CT 06536, USA.
Andrews
Norma W
NW
D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism / Q000469:parasitology; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000635:transmission; D003600:Cytosol / Q000378:metabolism / Q000469:parasitology; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D006801:Humans; D007843:Latin America; D008247:Lysosomes / Q000378:metabolism / Q000469:parasitology; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*
D002118:Calcium