Proteases from Protozoa and Their Role in Infection
One of the major classes of virulence factors acting in different host-pathogen interaction systems is comprised of proteases. Pathogen-secreted or membrane-associated proteases could be found to participate in different stages of establishment of infecti
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Proteases from Protozoa and Their Role in Infection Anupama Ghosh and Sanghamitra Raha
Abstract
One of the major classes of virulence factors acting in different host-pathogen interaction systems is comprised of proteases. Pathogen-secreted or membrane- associated proteases could be found to participate in different stages of establishment of infection. They are explored as candidate drug targets due to their key participation in the disease development process carried out by the pathogen. In this chapter we present an extensive review of the proteases of different protozoan parasites. Throughout the article we have made an effort to provide a comprehensive list of different proteases from various parasitic protozoa that have been demonstrated to execute major functions in the respective infection processes. Attempts have also been made to present their mode of action with respect to host invasion and disease development. Keywords
Protozoa • Parasite • Protease
A. Ghosh (*) Division of Plant Biology, Bose Institute, Centenary Campus, Kolkata 700054, India e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] S. Raha (*) Integrated Science Education and Research Center and Department of Biotechnology, Visva Bharati University, Shantiniketan 731235, India e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 S. Chakraborti, N.S. Dhalla (eds.), Proteases in Physiology and Pathology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2513-6_8
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A. Ghosh and S. Raha
Introduction
Protozoan parasites constitute one of the most prevalent groups of disease-causing pathogens worldwide. Included among a myriad of human diseases that are caused by protozoan parasites are amoebiasis, leishmaniasis, malaria and trypanosomiasis. An attempt to understand the disease-causing mechanisms of these pathogens over the years has revealed a number of key components that are instrumental towards host invasion and in-host survival of the pathogen. These effectors of disease establishment by the pathogen are primarily proteins exhibiting varied enzymatic activities. Pathogen-derived proteases are among one of these effectors and possibly the most important ones. Protozoan proteases aid in their pathogenesis in many different ways. For instance, they play a role in degradation of extracellular matrix that enables the pathogen to invade host cells. Besides, they participate in direct cytolysis and phagocytosis of target cells. In some cases protozoan proteases help in immune evasion by the pathogen through modulation or degradation of host immune molecules (Fig. 8.1). This contribution of protozoan proteases towards disease development however is not limited to a particular class of enzyme; instead different classes of proteases have been documented to participate in the virulence of the pathogen. In this review we put forward an effort to present different aspects of protozoan proteases in relation to their roles in pathogenesis. Proteases belonging to almost all the major classes have been found to participate in the vir
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