RESEARCH ARTICLE


Cell Signaling During Trypanosoma cruzi Development in Triatominae



Mário A.C. Silva-Neto*, Patrícia Fampa, Carlo Donato Caiaffa-Neto, Alan B. Carneiro, Georgia C. Atella
Instituto de Bioquímica Médica at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, 21940-590, Rio de Janeiro, R.J., Brazil.

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2010
Volume: 4
First Page: 188
Last Page: 194
Publisher ID: TOPARAJ-4-188
DOI: 10.2174/1874421401004010188

Article History:

Received Date: 13/11/2009
Revision Received Date: 7/5/2010
Acceptance Date: 8/5/2010
Electronic publication date: 10/12/2010
Collection year: 2010

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Creative Commons License
© 2010 Silva-Netoet al;

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Instituto de Bioquímica Médica at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, 21940-590, Rio de Janeiro, R.J., Brazil; Tel: 55 21 25626753; Fax: 5521 22708647; E-mail: maneto@bioqmed.ufrj.br


Abstract

The year 2009 is the centennial anniversary of the original description of Chagas disease by Carlos Chagas. During the last 100 years, several advances have occurred regarding our knowledge of the development of Trypanosoma cruzi and its travel along the gut of Triatominae vectors. We have also witnessed the completion of both the human and parasite genome projects; the genome of one of Chagas disease vectors, Rhodnius prolixus, is currently being sequenced. The development of T. cruzi in triatomine gut relies on several biochemical and molecular processes. The biochemistry of blood digestion and the molecular and biological aspects of parasite development are well known. However, several signaling molecules are generated during blood digestion, and their effects on parasite biology are only beginning to be understood. Here, we will summarize our current knowledge in this area with an emphasis on heme and bioactive lipids. In addition, we will highlight some recently described members of the parasite signaling machinery, which were identified through high-throughput studies, but whose ligands are unknown thus far. Finally, we will discuss some potential aspects for future investigation in this area that may strengthen our view of such a concomitant biological process in the next years.

Keywords: Trypanosoma, heme, lysophosphatidylcholine, Chagas disease, Rhodnius.