How Trypanosoma cruzi deals with oxidative stress: Antioxidant defence and DNA repair pathways

Publication date: January–March 2016 Source:Mutation Research/Reviews in Mutation Research, Volume 767 Author(s): Alice Machado-Silva, Paula Gonçalves Cerqueira, Viviane Grazielle-Silva, Fernanda Ramos Gadelha, Eduardo de Figueiredo Peloso, Santuza Maria Ribeiro Teixeira, Carlos Renato Machado Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, is an obligatory intracellular parasite with a digenetic life cycle. Due to the variety of host environments, it faces several sources of oxidative stress. In addition to reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by its own metabolism, T. cruzi must deal with high ROS levels generated as part of the host's immune responses. Hence, the conclusion that T. cruzi has limited ability to deal with ROS (based on the lack of a few enzymes involved with oxidative stress responses) seems somewhat paradoxical. Actually, to withstand such variable sources of oxidative stress, T. cruzi has developed complex defence mechanisms. This includes ROS detoxification pathways that are distinct from the ones in the mammalian host, DNA repair pathways and specialized polymerases, which not only protect its genome from the resulting oxidative damage but also contribute to the generation of genetic diversity within the parasite population. Recent studies on T. cruzi’s DNA repair pathways as mismatch repair (MMR) and GO system suggested that, besides a role associated with DNA repair, some proteins of these pathways may also be involv...
Source: Mutation Research Reviews in Mutation Research - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Source Type: research