alpha-chymotrypsin and Leishmaniasis

Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness affect 20 million people worldwide and lead to more than 50,000 deaths annually. The diseases are caused by infection with the kinetoplastid parasites Trypanosoma cruzi, Leishmania spp. and Trypanosoma brucei spp., respectively. These parasites have similar biology and genomic sequence, suggesting that all three diseases could be cured with drugs that modulate the activity of a conserved parasite target. However, no such molecular targets or broad spectrum drugs have been identified to date. Here we describe a selective inhibitor of the kinetoplastid proteasome (GNF6702) with unprecedented in vivo efficacy, which cleared parasites from mice in all three models of infection. GNF6702 inhibits the kinetoplastid proteasome through a non-competitive mechanism, does not inhibit the mammalian proteasome or growth of mammalian cells, and is well-tolerated in mice. Our data provide genetic and chemical validation of the parasite proteasome as a promising therapeutic target for treatment of kinetoplastid infections, and underscore the possibility of developing a single class of drugs for these neglected diseases.

Topics: Animals; Chagas Disease; Chymotrypsin; Disease Models, Animal; Female; Humans; Inhibitory Concentration 50; Kinetoplastida; Leishmaniasis; Mice; Molecular Structure; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex; Proteasome Inhibitors; Pyrimidines; Species Specificity; Triazoles; Trypanosomiasis, African

Sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae) are important disease vectors of parasites of the genus Leishmania, as well as bacteria and viruses. Following studies of the midgut transcriptome of Phlebotomus papatasi, the principal vector of Leishmania major, two non-classical Kazal-type serine proteinase inhibitors were identified (PpKzl1 and PpKzl2). Analyses of expression profiles indicated that PpKzl1 and PpKzl2 transcripts are both regulated by blood-feeding in the midgut of P. papatasi and are also expressed in males, larva and pupa. We expressed a recombinant PpKzl2 in a mammalian expression system (CHO-S free style cells) that was applied to in vitro studies to assess serine proteinase inhibition. Recombinant PpKzl2 inhibited α-chymotrypsin to 9.4% residual activity and also inhibited α-thrombin and trypsin to 33.5% and 63.9% residual activity, suggesting that native PpKzl2 is an active serine proteinase inhibitor and likely involved in regulating digestive enzymes in the midgut. Early stages of Leishmania are susceptible to killing by digestive proteinases in the sandfly midgut. Thus, characterising serine proteinase inhibitors may provide new targets and strategies to prevent transmission of Leishmania.

Topics: Animals; CHO Cells; Chymotrypsin; Cricetulus; Diptera; Female; Gastrointestinal Tract; Gene Expression; Insect Vectors; Leishmaniasis; Life Cycle Stages; Male; Phlebotomus; Psychodidae; Recombinant Proteins; Regression Analysis; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Sequence Analysis; Serine Proteinase Inhibitors; Thrombin; Trypsin

Essential to the pathogenesis of leishmaniasis is the ability of Leishmania spp. to attach to mononuclear phagocyte surfaces before entering this host cell which they parasitize. We have investigated the attachment phase of infection in vitro by quantitating the percent of human peripheral blood monocytes pretreated with cytochalasin (to prevent parasite entry) to which tissue-derived L. tropica amastigotes will attach during coincubation at 37 degrees C in serum-free medium. We determined that pretreatment of parasites with trypsin, chymotrypsin, Pronase, and neuraminidase reduced attachment. In contrast, parasites treated with beta-galactosidase had an enhanced ability to attach to host cells. Treatment of monocytes with chymotrypsin and Pronase, but not with trypsin or neuraminidase, reduced attachment of untreated amastigotes. We propose that in vitro amastigote attachment under serum-free conditions depends on the interaction of protein determinants on the surface of both parasite and host cell.

Topics: Animals; beta-Galactosidase; Chymotrypsin; Endopeptidases; Galactosidases; Host-Parasite Interactions; Humans; Leishmania; Leishmaniasis; Monocytes; Neuraminidase; Pronase; Trypsin