Targeting host mitochondria: A role for the Trypanosoma cruzi amastigote flagellum.

ABSTRACT: Trypanosoma cruzi is the kinetoplastid protozoan parasite that causes human Chagas disease, a chronic disease with complex outcomes including severe cardiomyopathy and sudden death. In mammalian hosts, T. cruzi colonises a wide range of tissues and cell types where it replicates within the host cell cytoplasm. Like all intracellular pathogens, T. cruzi amastigotes must interact with its immediate host cell environment in a manner that facilitates access to nutrients and promotes a suitable niche for replication and survival. Although potentially exploitable to devise strategies for pathogen control, fundamental knowledge of the host pathways co-opted by T. cruzi during infection is currently lacking. Here, we report that intracellular T. cruzi amastigotes establish close contact with host

SUBMITTER: Lentini G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5764780 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature