Endocytosis and sphingolipid scavenging in Leishmania mexicana amastigotes

Ali, H.Z.; Harding, C.R.; Denny, P.W.

doi:10.1155/2012/691363

Endocytosis and sphingolipid scavenging in Leishmania mexicana amastigotes

Ali, H.Z.; Harding, C.R.; Denny, P.W.

Authors

H.Z. Ali

C.R. Harding

Professor Paul Denny p.w.denny@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

Leishmania species are the causative agents of the leishmaniases, a spectrum of neglected tropical diseases. Amastigote stage parasites exist within macrophages and scavenge host factors for survival, for example, Leishmania species utilise host sphingolipid for synthesis of complex sphingolipid. In this study L. mexicana endocytosis was shown to be significantly upregulated in amastigotes, indicating that sphingolipid scavenging may be enhanced. However, inhibition of host sphingolipid biosynthesis had no significant effect on amastigote proliferation within a macrophage cell line. In addition, infection itself did not directly influence host biosynthesis. Notably, in contrast to L. major, L. mexicana amastigotes are indicated to possess a complete biosynthetic pathway suggesting that scavenged sphingolipids may be nonessential for proliferation. This suggested that Old and New World species differ in their interactions with the macrophage host. This will need to be considered when targeting the Leishmania sphingolipid biosynthetic pathway with novel therapeutics.

Citation

Ali, H., Harding, C., & Denny, P. (2012). Endocytosis and sphingolipid scavenging in Leishmania mexicana amastigotes. Biochemistry Research International, 2012, Article 691363. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/691363

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jul 22, 2011
Online Publication Date	Sep 21, 2011
Publication Date	Jan 1, 2012
Deposit Date	Jul 22, 2011
Publicly Available Date	Dec 8, 2011
Journal	Biochemistry Research International
Print ISSN	2090-2247
Electronic ISSN	2090-2255
Publisher	Hindawi
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	2012
Article Number	691363
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/691363

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Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2012 Hayder Z. Ali et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.