Laboratório de Biologia Molecular de Parasitas e Vetores, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Av. Brasil, 4365, 21045-900, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Parasitol Res. 2010 Jul;107(2):443-7. doi: 10.1007/s00436-010-1888-9. Epub 2010 May 30.
Trypanosoma cruzi presents considerable genetic and protein profile polymorphism among different parasite populations. In a previous work, our group indicated cysteine and metalloprotease activities as good markers for separating T. cruzi I (TCI) from T. cruzi II (TCII) isolates, with higher heterogeneity among TCII isolates. Here, we have investigated the expression level of surface cruzipain in 16 field isolates belonging to the genotype TCI (n = 8) and TCII (n = 8) of T. cruzi. By means of flow cytometry analyses, using an anti-cruzipain polyclonal antibody, we observed a highly heterogeneous pattern of surface cruzipain molecules in these isolates, independently of their genotypes, cell measurements (size and granularity), original hosts, or biomes. However, fluorescence labeling tended to be stronger in TCI than in TCII population. Interestingly, isolates that expressed higher levels of surface cruzipain also yielded elevated levels of metacyclogenesis in vitro.
克氏锥虫在不同寄生虫群体中表现出相当大的遗传和蛋白质谱多态性。在之前的工作中，我们的研究小组指出半胱氨酸和金属蛋白酶活性是区分 T. cruzi I（TCI）和 T. cruzi II（TCII）分离株的良好标志物，TCII 分离株之间的异质性更高。在这里，我们研究了属于 T. cruzi 基因型 TCI（n=8）和 TCII（n=8）的 16 个野外分离株表面 cruzipain 的表达水平。通过流式细胞术分析，使用抗 cruzipain 多克隆抗体，我们观察到这些分离株表面 cruzipain 分子呈现高度异质模式，与它们的基因型、细胞测量值（大小和粒度）、原始宿主或生物群落无关。然而，荧光标记在 TCI 中比在 TCII 群体中倾向于更强。有趣的是，表达更高水平表面 cruzipain 的分离株也在体外产生更高水平的循环生成。
