Trypanosoma brucei: maintenance of concentrated suspensions of bloodstream trypomastigotes in vitro using continuous dialysis for measurement of endocytosis

Organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1) is involved in pentamidine transport at the human and mouse blood-brain barrier (BBB)

Pentamidine is an effective trypanocidal drug used against stage 1 Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT). At the blood-brain barrier (BBB), it accumulates inside the endothelial cells but has limited entry into the brain. This study examined transporters involved in pentamidine transport at the human and mouse BBB using hCMEC/D3 and bEnd.3 cell lines, respectively. Results revealed that both cell lines expressed the organic cation transporters (OCT1, OCT2 and OCT3), however, P-gp was only expressed in hCMEC/D3 cells. Polarised expression of OCT1 was also observed. Functional assays found that ATP depletion significantly increased [³H]pentamidine accumulation in hCMEC/D3 cells (***p<0.001) but not in bEnd.3 cells. Incubation with unlabelled pentamidine significantly decreased accumulation in hCMEC/D3 and bEnd.3 cells after 120 minutes (***p<0.001). Treating both cell lines with haloperidol and amantadine also decreased [³H]pentamidine accumulation significantly (***p<0.001 and **p<0.01 respectively). However, prazosin treatment decreased [³H]pentamidine accumulation only in hCMEC/D3 cells (*p<0.05), and not bEnd.3 cells. Furthermore, the presence of OCTN, MATE, PMAT, ENT or CNT inhibitors/substrates had no significant effect on the accumulation of [³H]pentamidine in both cell lines. From the data, we conclude that pentamidine interacts with multiple transporters, is taken into brain endothelial cells by OCT1 transporter and is extruded into the blood by ATP-dependent mechanisms. These interactions along with the predominant presence of OCT1 in the luminal membrane of the BBB contribute to the limited entry of pentamidine into the brain. This information is of key importance to the development of pentamidine based combination therapies which could be used to treat CNS stage HAT by improving CNS delivery, efficacy against trypanosomes and safety profile of pentamidine.

Kinetics of endocytosis and recycling of the GPI-anchored variant surface glycoprotein inTrypanosoma brucei

The dense coat of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) covering parasitic African trypanosomes is essential for survival in mammalian hosts. VSG is internalised and recycled exclusively via a specialised part of the plasma membrane, the flagellar pocket. Direct measurement of the kinetics of VSG endocytosis and recycling shows that the VSG cell-surface pool is turned over within 12 minutes. Correspondingly, the turnover of the intracellular pool (9±4% of total VSG) requires only 1 minute, and this is an exceptionally high rate considering that endocytosis and exocytosis are limited to only 5% of the cell surface area. Kinetic 3D co-localisation analysis using biotinylated VSG and a panel of compartmental markers provides consistent evidence for the itinerary of VSG through the cell: VSG is endocytosed in large clathrin-coated vesicles, which bud from the flagellar pocket membrane at a rate of 6-7 vesicles per second, and is then delivered to RAB5-positive early endosomes. From there, VSG is recycled to RAB11-positive recycling endosomes at two stages, either directly or via RAB7-positive, late endosomes. Small clathrin-coated vesicles carrying fluid-phase cargo and being depleted of VSG bud from early and recycling endosomes. These vesicles are postulated to deliver their content to late endosomes and/or the lysosome. The recycling endosomes give rise to RAB11-positive exocytic carriers that fuse with the flagellar pocket and thereby return VSG to the cell surface. VSG recycling provides an interesting model for studies on the cellular trafficking and sorting of GPI-anchored proteins.

The transferrin receptor of Trypanosoma brucei

Bloodstream forms of Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of sleeping sickness in humans, require transferrin for growth. Uptake of host transferrin is mediated by a heterodimeric glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored receptor. The trypanosomal transferrin receptor is homologous to the N-terminal domain of the variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) and bears no structural similarity with the human transferrin receptor. In this review, the structure, biochemical properties and function of the transferrin receptor of T. brucei are summarized and compared to the transferrin receptor of mammalian cells.

Prospects for antiparasitic drugs. The case of Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African sleeping sickness

Glycolysis in the bloodstream form of Trypanosoma brucei provides a convenient context for studying the prospects for using enzyme inhibitors as antiparasitic drugs. As the recently developed model of this system (Bakker, B. M., Michels, P. A. M., Opperdoes, F. R., and Westerhoff, H. V. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 3207-3215) contains 20 enzyme-catalyzed reactions or transport steps, there are apparently numerous potential targets for drugs. However, as most flux control resides in the glucose-transport step, this is the only step for which inhibition can be expected to produce large effects on flux, and in the computer model such effects prove to be surprisingly small (although larger than those obtained by inhibiting any other step). It follows that there is little prospect of killing trypanosomes by depressing their glycolysis to a level incapable of sustaining life. The alternative is to use inhibition to increase the concentration of a metabolite sufficiently to interfere with the viability of the organism. For this purpose, only uncompetitive inhibition of pyruvate export proves effective in the model; in all other cases studied, the effects on metabolite concentrations are little more than trivial. This observation can be explained by the fact that nearly all of the metabolite concentrations in the system are held within relatively narrow ranges by stoichiometric constraints.

Endocytosis and secretion in trypanosomatid parasites — Tumultuous traffic in a pocket

Trypanosomatids are flagellated protozoan parasites of invertebrates, vertebrates and plants. Some species, found in the subtropics and tropics, cause chronic diseases in humans and domestic animals. The surface of the trypanosomatid provides a shield against environmental challenges, ligands for interaction with host cells, as well as receptors and transporters for the uptake of nutrients. Communication between the parasite and its environment is confined to the flagellar pocket, an invagination of the plasma membrane around the base of the flagellum. In this review, the authors discuss endocytosis, secretion and membrane trafficking in Trypanosoma and Leishmania.

Characterisation of cloned lines of Trypanosoma brucei expressing stable resistance to MelCy and suramin

Two cloned drug-sensitive stocks of Trypanosoma brucei (STIB 247 and STIB 386) were each used to generate cloned lines expressing resistance to the melaminophenyl arsenical drug cymelarsan (247MelCyR and 386MelCyR) and to suramin (247SurR and 386SurR). The drug-resistance phenotypes were stable after passaging in mice in the absence of drug pressure and three of the lines were transmitted through tsetse flies with no alteration of drug-resistance. There was no evidence of cross-resistance between melCy and suramin in vivo. Twenty-four hour growth inhibition assays were conducted on bloodstream and procyclic forms in axenic in vitro cultures. Suramin-resistance was expressed in bloodstream forms but not in the procyclic stage, while the melCy-resistant lines expressed melCy-resistance in both stages. No cross-resistance between melCy and suramin was observed. Cross-resistance between melCy and another arsenical drug, melB (melarsoprol), was observed in vivo, but to only a very limited extent in vitro. We propose that this difference between the in vivo and in vitro results for melB may indicate that an alteration in a surface adenosine transporter responsible for reduced melCy uptake was bypassed by melB over 24 hours in vitro.

Characterization of polymer release from the flagellar pocket of Leishmania mexicana promastigotes

Trypanosomatids contain a unique compartment, the flagellar pocket, formed by an invagination of the plasma membrane at the base of the flagellum, which is considered to be the sole cellular site for endocytosis and exocytosis of macromolecules. The culture supernatant of Leishmania mexicana promastigotes, the insect stage of this protozoan parasite, contains two types of polymers: a filamentous acid phosphatase (sAP) composed of a 100-kD phosphoglycoprotein with non-covalently associated proteo high molecular weight phosphoglycan (proteo-HMWPG) and fibrous material termed network consisting of complex phosphoglycans. Secretion of both polymers is investigated using mAbs and a combination of light and electron microscopic techniques. Long filaments of sAP are detectable in the lumen of the flagellar pocket. Both sAP filaments and network material emerge from the ostium of the flagellar pocket. While sAP filaments detach from the cells, the fibrous network frequently remains associated with the anterior end of the parasites and can be found in the center of cell aggregates. The related species L. major forms similar networks. Since polymeric structures cannot be detected in intracellular compartments, it is proposed that monomeric or, possibly, oligomeric subunits synthesized in the cells are secreted into the flagellar pocket. Polymer formation from subunits is suggested to occur in the lumen of the pocket before release into the culture medium or, naturally, into the gut of infected sandflies.

The uptake of the trypanocidal drug suramin in combination with low-density lipoproteins by Trypanosoma brucei and its possible mode of action

In plasma, a significant part of suramin circulates in tight association with low-density lipoproteins (LDL). At therapeutically obtainable concentrations (100 microM) of suramin, about 85% of the total amount of the drug was bound to proteins, approximately 15% of which was bound to LDL. The molar ratio of suramin bound to LDL in serum was 7.5. The capacity of the high-affinity binding sites of LDL were 6.6 x 10(6) M-1, both in Tris buffer and in ultrafiltrate of serum. Suramin (100 microM) decreased the uptake of host LDL through receptor-mediated endocytosis by Trypanosoma brucei, with approximately 50%. LDL served as the only carrier for suramin uptake. Serum albumin, another important carrier for suramin in blood, was not able to promote suramin uptake, neither was delipidified plasma. The suramin taken up by T. brucei was recovered, in part, in the lysosomal fractions. It is suggested that deprivation of the parasite from cholesterol and phospholipids by an inhibition of the uptake of LDL, contributes to the mode of action of suramin, in addition to the many other effects that the drug may exert on the parasite. The toxic side-effects of suramin on the host are discussed in the light of its association with circulating lipoproteins.

Serum lipoprotein and Trypanosoma brucei brucei interactions in vitro

Trypanosoma brucei brucei IL3201 and IL3202, which are dependent on serum high or low-density lipoproteins to multiply under axenic culture conditions, acquired lipoprotein-associated 3H-lipids without binding, accumulating or degrading apolipoproteins. Uptake by the T. b. brucei of lipoprotein-associated [1 alpha, 2 alpha(n)-3H]cholesterol, [1 alpha, 2 alpha(n)-3H]cholesteryl linoleate, [1 alpha, 2 alpha(n)-3H]cholesteryl oleoyl ether and L-3-phosphatidyl [N-methyl-3H]choline, 1,2-dipalmitoyl, occurred at 37 degrees C but not at 0 degree C, and tended towards saturation with increasing concentrations of 3H-lipid-labelled lipoproteins in the incubation mixture. The uptake processes did not discriminate between high- or low-density lipoproteins, did not require exogenous divalent ions and were not inhibited by the presence of acidotropic agents (chloroquine, ammonium chloride) in the incubation mixture. Uptake by T. b. brucei of lipoprotein cholesterol was likely to result mainly from desorption and diffusion processes, whereas specific binding sites were probably involved in the uptake by T. b. brucei of lipoprotein cholesteryl linoleate, cholesteryl oleoyl ether and possibly phosphatidylcholine. Exponentially growing T. b. brucei hydrolysed cholesteryl linoleate to cholesterol and had only a small capacity to reesterify cholesterol, whereas committed non-dividing stumpy form T. b. brucei had a large capacity to esterify cholesterol. Conversion products of phosphatidylcholine were generated during or after uptake of this phospholipid by exponentially growing T. b. brucei.

Endocytosis and intracellular occurrence of the variant surface glycoprotein in Trypanosoma congolense

Trypanosoma congolense bloodstream forms were examined for binding sites of polyclonal anti-variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) antibodies using immunoelectron microscopy. Besides the surface, the antibodies labeled intracellular vesicles, the tubular membrane system, secondary lysosomes, and the digestive vacuole. Protein A gold (PAG), peroxidase gold (POG), anti-VSG antibodies preincubated with PAG, ferritin, concanavalin A-ferritin, and microperoxidase were examined for their suitability as endocytosis tracers in combination with immunoelectron microscopy. Endocytosis of PAG and POG was most effective and was mediated by vesicles transporting the tracer to secondary lysosomes. Gold particles eventually accumulated in the digestive vacuole. Apparantly only low amounts of VSG were internalized during endocytosis. VSG export from the cell interior to the flagellar pocket was not observed during excessive endocytosis of PAG, whereas after incubation with substances causing the formation of filopodia by binding to the surface coat, VSG-labeled vesicles were present near the flagellar pocket.

Receptor-mediated endocytosis in the bloodstream form of Trypanosoma brucei

The uptake of various host plasma proteins by the bloodstream form of Trypanosoma brucei was studied both biochemically, using radiolabeled proteins, and with the electron microscope, using colloidal gold particles as molecular tracers onto which plasma proteins had been adsorbed. Total plasma proteins and serum albumin were taken up by a mechanism of fluid endocytosis with low clearance (0.1 microliter [mg cell protein]-1 h-1), while low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and transferrin were taken up by a receptor-mediated process with a clearance of two to three orders of magnitude higher than that of serum albumin. Binding prior to uptake of LDL and transferrin was saturable, depended on the presence of Ca2+, and the labeled ligand could be displaced by the homologous but not by heterologous protein. Binding of gold-labeled proteins was seen only to the membrane of the flagellar pocket and not elsewhere on the plasma membrane. After 1 h of incubation at 30 degrees C with gold-labeled LDL and transferrin, labeled cellular structures represented respectively half and one-third of the total volume of all single-membrane bounded endocytotic and electron-dense vacuoles within the cell.

The aerobic/anaerobic transition of glucose metabolism in Trypanosoma brucei

The ratio of glycerol to pyruvate produced by T. brucei incubated with glucose at various oxygen tensions has been used as an index of the aerobic and anaerobic pathways of glucose metabolism. A minimal model is presented which fits the observed data. The value of the notional K of the aerobic/anaerobic transition from the model is close to that of the Km of trypanosomal glycerophosphate oxidase. The anaerobic pathway appears to be almost completely inoperative at oxygen tensions in the range of those found in venous and arterial blood.

Interaction of high-density lipoprotein with Trypanosoma brucei: effect of membrane stabilizers

The specific lysis of bloodstream trypanosomes by serum from a nonpermissive mammalian host is the result of interaction between the serum trypanocidal factor (high-density lipoprotein) and the trypanosome surface. The studies described in this paper attempt to define further the mode of action of this cytotoxic lipoprotein. The binding of high-density lipoprotein to Trypanosoma brucei was instantaneous at 4 degrees C and readily reversible. Binding was not mediated by the surface glycoprotein as removal of the surface coat enhanced binding at 4 degrees C, and no stable glycoprotein-lipoprotein complex could be detected. Pretreatment of trypanosomes with the cross linker dimethylsuberimidate rendered cells resistant to lysis. Addition of membrane-stabilizing drugs, such as cytochalasins C, D, and E, and local anesthetics (dibucaine, tetracaine, and procaine), also inhibited high-density lipoprotein-induced cell lysis. The data presented support the idea that at 37 degrees C lateral diffusion of the variant surface glycoprotein, an integral membrane protein, allows maximal high-density lipoprotein-cell interaction in serum-sensitive cells, and that altered properties of the plasma membrane induced by low temperature or the addition of cytochalasins, local anesthetics, or zinc inhibit this interaction, possibly by increasing the shielding of the plasma membrane by more rigidly anchored surface glycoprotein molecules.

Involvement of lysosomes in the uptake of macromolecular material by bloodstream forms of Trypanosoma brucei

To investigate whether the lysosomes of Trypanosoma brucei are capable of uptake of macromolecules after internalization by the cell, we used Triton WR-1339, a non-digestible macromolecular compound, which is known to cause a marked decrease in the density of hepatic lysosomes due to massive intralysosomal storage. Intraperitoneal administration of 0.4 g/kg Triton WR-1339 to rats infected with T. brucei led to the development of a large vacuole in the trypanosomes between nucleus and kinetoplast within 22 h. Higher doses (2 g/kg) led to the disappearance of the trypanosomes from the blood and resulted in permanent cures (greater than 100 days). Lysosomes isolated from the trypanosomes of animals treated with a sub-curative dose showed a decrease in equilibrium density of 0.03 g/cm3 in sucrose gradients. These lysosomes were partly damaged as evidenced by a reduction in latency and an increase in the non-sedimentable part of lysosomal enzymes. We conclude that acid proteinase and alpha-mannosidase-containing organelles of T. brucei take up exogenous macromolecules and must therefore be considered as true lysosomes and that Triton WR-1339 acts in T. brucei as a true lysosomotropic drug. Its trypanocidal action probably results from an interference with lysosomal function.

Uptake of the trypanocidal drug suramin by bloodstream forms of Trypanosoma brucei and its effect on respiration and growth rate in vivo

After a single intravenous injection of suramin the rate of removal of the drug from the plasma into other tissue compartments of the rat is independent of initial concentration. The data can be fitted to the sum of two exponential functions, consistent with a two-compartment, open model system. Trypanosomes take up only small amounts of suramin in vivo and do not actively concentrate the drug within the cell. Uptake is apparently by a non-saturable process that decreases with time and is dependent on the amount of suramin already taken up. Once within the cell, suramin progressively inhibits respiration and glycolysis, such that, for a given exposure in vivo, inhibition of oxygen consumption is proportional to the total amount of suramin absorbed. It can be calculated that only a fraction (4--9%) of this total is required to inhibit respiration to the extent found in broken cell preparations. The combined inhibition of two key enzymes in glycolysis--the sn-glycerol-3-phosphate oxidase (EC unassigned) and the glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (NAD+) (sn-glycerol-3-phosphate: NAD+ 2-oxidoreductase, EC 1.1.1.8)--are sufficient to account for the differential inhibition of glucose and oxygen consumption and of pyruvate production, together with the small, but significant, production of glycerol. Even at the highest dose of suramin tolerated by the rat, trypanosomes continue to increase exponentially in the bloodstream for at least 6 h. The mean doubling time is increased from 4.6 h to a maximum of about 12.5 h in rats treated with doses of suramin in the range 25--150 mg/kg. In the light of these and other findings, it is concluded that part of the trypanocidal action of suramin results from the inhibition of ATP production by glycolysis.