Role of the cytoplasmic tryparedoxin peroxidase of Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis in resistance to antileishmanial drugs

• Grant number: 15/03335-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2015
• Effective date (End): February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Parasitology - Protozoology of Parasites
• Principal Investigator: Beatriz Simonsen Stolf
• Grantee: Patrizia Dardi
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Leishmania (L.) amazonensis is one of the causative species of a complex of diseases known as leishmaniasis. Having a digenetic life cycle, this parasite presents an extracellular stage, known as promastigote, in the gastrointestinal tract of hematophagous sand flies from the genera Phlebotomus and Lutzomyia, and an intracellular stage especially inside macrophages in the mammalian host, known as amastigote. To survive to the responses of the mammalian immune system and multiply, the protozoan takes advantage of multiple molecules known as virulence factors. Among those factors there is cTXNPx, a protein responsible for redox homeostasis of the parasite. To better understand the role of this enzyme in resistance to antileishmanial drugs, we produced a strain of L. (L.) amazonensis overexpressing cTXNPx. This project aims to understand the importance of this protein to L. (L.) amazonensis infection and its role in the resistance of this species to different drugs. (AU)