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Infection and Immunity, December 2000, p. 6602-6610, Vol. 68, No. 12
Section of Microbial Pathogenesis, Boyer
Center for Molecular Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine,
New Haven, Connecticut 06520,1 and the
Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of
Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 021552
Received 6 July 2000/Returned for modification 19 August
2000/Accepted 4 September 2000
Cell invasion by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma
cruzi involves activation of host signaling pathways and the
recruitment and fusion of lysosomes at the parasite entry site. A major
signaling pathway regulating invasion of fibroblasts, epithelial cells, and myoblasts involves mobilization of Ca2+ from
intracellular stores and requires the activity of a T. cruzi serine peptidase, oligopeptidase B (OPB). Deletion of the
OPB gene results in a marked defect in trypomastigote virulence,
consistent with a greatly reduced cell invasion capacity. Here we show
that uptake by macrophages, on the other hand, is largely independent of OPB expression and sensitive to inhibition of by cytochalasin D. The
residual invasion capacity of OPBnull trypomastigotes in fibroblasts
still involves lysosome recruitment, although in a significantly
delayed fashion. Transient elevations in intracellular Ca2+
concentrations were observed in host cells exposed to both wild-type and OPBnull trypomastigotes, but the signals triggered by the mutant
parasites were less vigorous and delayed. The capacity of triggering
elevation in host cell cyclic AMP (cAMP), however, was unaltered in
OPBnull trypomastigotes. Modulation in cAMP levels preferentially
affected the residual cell invasion capacity of OPBnull parasites,
suggesting that this signaling pathway can play a dominant role in
promoting cell invasion in the absence of the major OPB-dependent pathway.
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Dual Role of Signaling Pathways Leading to
Ca2+ and Cyclic AMP Elevation in Host Cell Invasion by
Trypanosoma cruzi
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Section of
Microbial Pathogenesis, Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine, Yale
University School of Medicine, 295 Congress Ave., New Haven, CT 06536. Phone: (203) 737-2410. Fax: (203) 737-2630. E-mail:
norma.andrews{at}yale.edu.
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