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Iron metabolism of parasitic amoeba Acanthamoeba castellanii
Krejbichová, Lucie ; Mach, Jan (advisor) ; Horáková, Eva (referee)
Acanthamoeba castellanii, an opportunistic parasitic amoeba, rarely causes infection in humans. Yet, the treatment and diagnosis is often complicated. It causes two diseases: granulomatous encephalitis and acanthamoeba keratitis (inflammation of the cornea of the eye). There is a modern way to deal with parasitic protists and other infectious diseases - interference with iron metabolism. Iron is a crucial element for living organisms; it is involved in many metabolic processes. However, it is also toxic for the organisms and therefore, its uptake, storage and homeostasis in the cell is a strictly controlled process. Ferric reductase takes part in iron homeostasis inside the acanthamoeba cell. Fluorescent microscopy has shown that ferric reductase is located in the vacuole membranes and its activity increases when iron availability decreases. This protein probably mediates the reduction of iron ions that are used in other cellular processes, especially for the transport of iron across membranes. Interestingly, the reduced availability of iron doesn't affect the mitochondrial Fe-S cluster pathway as we proved by fluorescent microscopy with an antibody against one of the proteins of this pathway (IscU). Iron deficiency doesn't affect respiration but alternative oxidase activity is reduced. Moreover, deprived...
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Iron metabolism of parasitic protist Trypanosoma brucei
Krejbichová, Lucie ; Mach, Jan (advisor) ; Pyrih, Jan (referee)
Trypanosoma brucei is a parasite most frequently occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa that causes sleeping sickness in humans and various similar illnesses in animals. The bloodsucking tsetse flies (Glossina) transfer the parasite to humans, their final hosts. Throughout its complex life cycle, Trypanosoma occurs in different environments and undergoes various morphological and metabolic changes. Iron is an important element for all living organisms, including Trypanosoma. The metal plays a crucial role in the host-parasite interaction since trypanosomes are dependent on the iron they acquire from the host or vector. Trypanosomes use iron in metabolic reactions, such as energy metabolism, respiration, nucleic acid synthesis, detoxification, and cellular homeostasis. It is an important element in the synthesis of iron-sulfur clusters which function as cofactors during the above-mentioned reactions. The understanding of iron metabolism in the cell can facilitate the development of new medicaments, an example being iron chelators.
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