title: Dihydroxyacetone induced autophagy in African trypanosomes.
abstract: Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) was examined to explore its trypanocidal activity. The compound is easily taken up by trypanosomes via its aquaglyceroporins but is not converted to a glycolytic intermediate due to the lack of a respective kinase. Investigating the DHA-induced cell death it became evident that parasites die by autophagy rather than by necrosis or apoptosis. Since autophagy is not well studied in African trypanosomes our work offers a way to investigate the importance of autophagy for trypanosomes not only for stress coping but also for organelle reconstruction during differentiation.
authors.affiliation: Interfaculty Institute of Biochemistry, University of Tubinge, Tubinge, Germany. michael.duszenko@uni-tuebingen.de
authors.forename: Néstor L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Uzcátegui
authors.forename: Viola
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Denninger
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Merkel
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schoenfeld
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Figarella
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Duszenko
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D000818:Animals; D001343:Autophagy / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D016923:Cell Death; D004098:Dihydroxyacetone / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D020128:Inhibitory Concentration 50; D007700:Kinetics; D014344:Trypanocidal Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014346:Trypanosoma brucei brucei / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000648:ultrastructure