title: Metacaspases of Trypanosoma cruzi: possible candidates for programmed cell death mediators.
abstract: The genome of Trypanosoma cruzi, the Protozoan parasite causing the American Trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, contains two genes, TcMCA3 and TcMCA5, with homology to those encoding metacaspases, distantly related to the caspases involved in programmed cell death (PCD) in higher eukaryotes. TcMCA3 is present in the CL Brener clone at 16 copies per haploid genome, arrayed in two tandems located in chromosomes of 0.54 and 0.98 Mbp. TcMCA5, on the other hand, is present as a single copy gene. The proteins encoded were expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 [DE3] cells, and used to generate antibodies, which allowed demonstrating that TcMCA3 is expressed in the four major developmental stages of the parasite, whereas TcMCA5 is expressed only in the epimastigote form. Moreover, recombinant TcMCA3, but not TcMCA5, was recognized by most sera from chronic Chagasic patients, showing that the protein is expressed during natural infections. All attempts to show processing and enzyme activity in the recombinant proteins have been unsuccessful so far; however, indirect evidence suggests that the metacaspases might be involved in PCD of the parasite. (1) Immunofluorescence experiments showed that both proteins change their subcellular localization during fresh human serum (FHS)-induced PCD migrating into the nucleus. (2) Epimastigotes over-expressing TcMCA5 were more sensitive to FHS-induced PCD than the controls. (3) PCD was parallelled by an increase in peptidase activity against Z-YVAD-AFC, a typical caspase substrate, and the apoptotic nuclei cells were labeled in vivo with the pan-caspase fluorescent inhibitor SR-VAD-FMK. Further experiments will be required to complete the characterization of these proteins and elucidate their role in the parasite.
authors.affiliation: Jozef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, SI 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Gregor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kosec
authors.forename: Vanina E
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: Fernán
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Agüero
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dolinar
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Turk
authors.forename: Vito
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Turk
authors.forename: Juan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Cazzulo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D020169:Caspases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D044967:Serum / Q000276:immunology; D013347:Subcellular Fractions / Q000201:enzymology; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D020169:Caspases