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Infection and Immunity, April 2001, p. 2757-2761, Vol. 69, No. 4
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.4.2757-2761.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Trypanosome-Derived Oligopeptidase B Is Released into the Plasma of Infected Rodents, Where It Persists and Retains Full Catalytic Activity

Rory E. Morty,1,* John D. Lonsdale-Eccles,2 Reinhardt Mentele,3 Ennes A. Auerswald,3,dagger and Theresa H. T. Coetzer1

Department of Biochemistry, School of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, University of Natal, Scottsville, South Africa1; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama2; and Abteilung für Klinische Chemie und Klinische Biochemie in der Chirurgischen Klinik und Poliklinik, Klinikum Innenstadt, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany3

Received 7 November 2000/Returned for modification 15 December 2000/Accepted 19 January 2001

A trypsin-like serine peptidase activity, levels of which correlate with blood parasitemia levels, is present in the plasma of rats acutely infected with Trypanosoma brucei brucei. Antibodies to a trypanosome peptidase with a trypsin-like substrate specificity (oligopeptidase B [OP-Tb]) cross-reacted with a protein in the plasma of trypanosome-infected rats on a Western blot. These antibodies also abolished 80% of the activity in the plasma of trypanosome-infected rats, suggesting that the activity may be attributable to a parasite-derived peptidase. We purified the enzyme responsible for the bulk of this activity from parasite-free T. b. brucei-infected rat plasma and confirmed its identity by protein sequencing. We show that live trypanosomes do not release OP-Tb in vitro and propose that disrupted parasites release it into the host circulation, where it is unregulated and retains full catalytic activity and may thus play a role in the pathogenesis of African trypanosomiasis.

* Corresponding author. Present address: Section of Microbial Pathogenesis, Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, 295 Congress Ave., New Haven, CT 06536. Phone: (203) 737-2411. Fax: (203) 737-2630. E-mail: rory.morty{at}yale.edu.

dagger Present address: Neurologische Klinik Großhadern, Klinikum der Universität München, D-81377 Munich, Germany.

Infection and Immunity, April 2001, p. 2757-2761, Vol. 69, No. 4
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.4.2757-2761.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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