1. Dihydroxyacetone induced autophagy in African trypanosomes.
- Author
-
Uzcátegui NL, Denninger V, Merkel P, Schoenfeld C, Figarella K, and Duszenko M
- Subjects
- Africa, Animals, Autophagy drug effects, Cell Death, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Inhibitory Concentration 50, Kinetics, Trypanosoma brucei brucei ultrastructure, Autophagy physiology, Dihydroxyacetone pharmacology, Trypanocidal Agents pharmacology, Trypanosoma brucei brucei drug effects
- 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.
- Published
- 2007
- Full Text
- View/download PDF