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Alpizar-Sosa E, Zimbres FM, Mantilla BS, Dickie EA, Wei W, Burle-Caldas GA, Filipe LNS, Van Bocxlaer K, Price HP, Ibarra-Meneses AV, Beaudry F, Fernandez-Prada C, Whitfield PD, Barrett MP, Denny PW. Evaluation of the Leishmania Inositol Phosphorylceramide Synthase as a Drug Target Using a Chemical and Genetic Approach. ACS Infect Dis 2024; 10:2913-2928. [PMID: 39023360 PMCID: PMC11320567 DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.4c00284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2024] [Revised: 07/01/2024] [Accepted: 07/03/2024] [Indexed: 07/20/2024]
Abstract
The lack of effective vaccines and the development of resistance to the current treatments highlight the urgent need for new anti-leishmanials. Sphingolipid metabolism has been proposed as a promising source of Leishmania-specific targets as these lipids are key structural components of the eukaryotic plasma membrane and are involved in distinct cellular events. Inositol phosphorylceramide (IPC) is the primary sphingolipid in the Leishmania species and is the product of a reaction mediated by IPC synthase (IPCS). The antihistamine clemastine fumarate has been identified as an inhibitor of IPCS in L. major and a potent anti-leishmanial in vivo. Here we sought to further examine the target of this compound in the more tractable species L. mexicana, using an approach combining genomic, proteomic, metabolomic and lipidomic technologies, with molecular and biochemical studies. While the data demonstrated that the response to clemastine fumarate was largely conserved, unexpected disturbances beyond sphingolipid metabolism were identified. Furthermore, while deletion of the gene encoding LmxIPCS had little impact in vitro, it did influence clemastine fumarate efficacy and, importantly, in vivo pathogenicity. Together, these data demonstrate that clemastine does inhibit LmxIPCS and cause associated metabolic disturbances, but its primary target may lie elsewhere.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Flavia M. Zimbres
- Department
of Biosciences, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, U.K.
| | - Brian S. Mantilla
- Department
of Biosciences, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, U.K.
| | - Emily A. Dickie
- School
of Infection and Immunity, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life
Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8TA, U.K.
| | - Wenbin Wei
- Department
of Biosciences, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, U.K.
| | - Gabriela A. Burle-Caldas
- Department
of Biosciences, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, U.K.
- Departamento
de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Universidade
Federal de Minas Gerais, Caixa Postal 486 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
| | - Laura N. S. Filipe
- Department
of Biosciences, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, U.K.
| | - Katrien Van Bocxlaer
- York
Biomedical Research Institute, Hull York Medical School, University of York, York YO10 5NG, U.K.
| | - Helen P. Price
- School
of Life Sciences, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, U.K.
| | - Ana V. Ibarra-Meneses
- Département
de Pathologie et Microbiologie, Faculté de Médecine
Vétérinaire, Université
de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec J2S 2M2, Canada
| | - Francis Beaudry
- Département
de Biomédecine, Faculté de Médecine Vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec J2S 2M2, Canada
| | - Christopher Fernandez-Prada
- Département
de Pathologie et Microbiologie, Faculté de Médecine
Vétérinaire, Université
de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec J2S 2M2, Canada
| | - Philip D. Whitfield
- School
of Infection and Immunity, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life
Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8TA, U.K.
| | - Michael P. Barrett
- School
of Infection and Immunity, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life
Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8TA, U.K.
| | - Paul W. Denny
- Department
of Biosciences, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, U.K.
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Dos Santos NSA, Estevez-Castro CF, Macedo JP, Chame DF, Castro-Gomes T, Santos-Cardoso M, Burle-Caldas GA, Covington CN, Steel PG, Smith TK, Denny PW, Teixeira SMR. Disruption of the inositol phosphorylceramide synthase gene affects Trypanosoma cruzi differentiation and infection capacity. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2023; 17:e0011646. [PMID: 37729272 PMCID: PMC10545103 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0011646] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2022] [Revised: 10/02/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Sphingolipids (SLs) are essential components of all eukaryotic cellular membranes. In fungi, plants and many protozoa, the primary SL is inositol-phosphorylceramide (IPC). Trypanosoma cruzi is a protozoan parasite that causes Chagas disease (CD), a chronic illness for which no vaccines or effective treatments are available. IPC synthase (IPCS) has been considered an ideal target enzyme for drug development because phosphoinositol-containing SL is absent in mammalian cells and the enzyme activity has been described in all parasite forms of T. cruzi. Furthermore, IPCS is an integral membrane protein conserved amongst other kinetoplastids, including Leishmania major, for which specific inhibitors have been identified. Using a CRISPR-Cas9 protocol, we generated T. cruzi knockout (KO) mutants in which both alleles of the IPCS gene were disrupted. We demonstrated that the lack of IPCS activity does not affect epimastigote proliferation or its susceptibility to compounds that have been identified as inhibitors of the L. major IPCS. However, disruption of the T. cruzi IPCS gene negatively affected epimastigote differentiation into metacyclic trypomastigotes as well as proliferation of intracellular amastigotes and differentiation of amastigotes into tissue culture-derived trypomastigotes. In accordance with previous studies suggesting that IPC is a membrane component essential for parasite survival in the mammalian host, we showed that T. cruzi IPCS null mutants are unable to establish an infection in vivo, even in immune deficient mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nailma S A Dos Santos
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Carlos F. Estevez-Castro
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Juan P. Macedo
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Daniela F. Chame
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Thiago Castro-Gomes
- Departamento de Parasitologia, Universidade Federal de Minas, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Mariana Santos-Cardoso
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Gabriela A. Burle-Caldas
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Courtney N. Covington
- Department of Chemistry and Centre for Global Infectious Disease, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
| | - Patrick G. Steel
- Department of Chemistry and Centre for Global Infectious Disease, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
| | - Terry K. Smith
- BSRC School of Biology, Biomolecular Science Building, St Andrews, United Kingdom
| | - Paul W. Denny
- Department of Biosciences and Centre for Global Infectious Diseases, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
| | - Santuza M. R. Teixeira
- Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
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3
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Black JA, Reis-Cunha JL, Cruz AK, Tosi LR. Life in plastic, it's fantastic! How Leishmania exploit genome instability to shape gene expression. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2023; 13:1102462. [PMID: 36779182 PMCID: PMC9910336 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1102462] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Leishmania are kinetoplastid pathogens that cause leishmaniasis, a debilitating and potentially life-threatening infection if untreated. Unusually, Leishmania regulate their gene expression largely post-transcriptionally due to the arrangement of their coding genes into polycistronic transcription units that may contain 100s of functionally unrelated genes. Yet, Leishmania are capable of rapid and responsive changes in gene expression to challenging environments, often instead correlating with dynamic changes in their genome composition, ranging from chromosome and gene copy number variations to the generation of extrachromosomal DNA and the accumulation of point mutations. Typically, such events indicate genome instability in other eukaryotes, coinciding with genetic abnormalities, but for Leishmania, exploiting these products of genome instability can provide selectable substrates to catalyse necessary gene expression changes by modifying gene copy number. Unorthodox DNA replication, DNA repair, replication stress factors and DNA repeats are recognised in Leishmania as contributors to this intrinsic instability, but how Leishmania regulate genome plasticity to enhance fitness whilst limiting toxic under- or over-expression of co-amplified and co-transcribed genes is unclear. Herein, we focus on fresh, and detailed insights that improve our understanding of genome plasticity in Leishmania. Furthermore, we discuss emerging models and factors that potentially circumvent regulatory issues arising from polycistronic transcription. Lastly, we highlight key gaps in our understanding of Leishmania genome plasticity and discuss future studies to define, in higher resolution, these complex regulatory interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer A. Black
- Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil,The Wellcome Centre for Integrative Parasitology, School of Infection, Immunity, and Inflammation, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom,*Correspondence: Luiz. R.O. Tosi, ; Jennifer A. Black,
| | | | - Angela. K. Cruz
- Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
| | - Luiz. R.O. Tosi
- Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil,*Correspondence: Luiz. R.O. Tosi, ; Jennifer A. Black,
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