Typical 2-Cys peroxiredoxins in human parasites: Several physiological roles for a potential chemotherapy target

This paper is dedicated to our beloved colleague Prof. Donatella Barra, deceased 28 September 2014.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molbiopara.2016.03.005Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Typical 2-Cys peroxiredoxins play several functions in eukarya.

  • In parasites peroxidase and holdase activities of Prx1 family are correlated with virulence.

  • The possibility to inhibit one function over the others is a foreseeable task.

  • Due to active site conservation in Prx1 family, synthesis of specific inhibitors is challenging.

Abstract

Peroxiredoxins (Prxs) are ubiquitary proteins able to play multiple physiological roles, that include thiol-dependent peroxidase, chaperone holdase, sensor of H2O2, regulator of H2O2-dependent signal cascades, and modulator of the immune response. Prxs have been found in a great number of human pathogens, both eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Gene knock-out studies demonstrated that Prxs are essential for the survival and virulence of at least some of the pathogens tested, making these proteins potential drug targets. However, the multiplicity of roles played by Prxs constitutes an unexpected obstacle to drug development. Indeed, selective inhibitors of some of the functions of Prxs are known (namely of the peroxidase and holdase functions) and are here reported. However, it is often unclear which function is the most relevant in each pathogen, hence which one is most desirable to inhibit. Indeed there are evidences that the main physiological role of Prxs may not be the same in different parasites. We here review which functions of Prxs have been demonstrated to be relevant in different human parasites, finding that the peroxidase and chaperone activities figure prominently, whereas other known functions of Prxs have rarely, if ever, been observed in parasites, or have largely escaped detection thus far.

Section snippets

Introduction: peroxiredoxin and human pathogens

Peroxiredoxins (Prxs) are ubiquitary enzymes with thiol-dependent peroxidase activity [1], [2]. In some cell types that are exposed to oxidative damage, they can attain very high concentration, such as in the human erythrocytes, where Prx II (formerly called calpromotin or torin) is the third most abundant protein and its concentration is approximately 6 mg/mL [3], [4]. Besides their peroxidase activity, Prxs can play other roles in the cell: they have been demonstrated to act as peroxynitrite

Structure and classification of Prxs

Prxs from eukaryotes were classified into the three classes of typical and atypical 2-Cys Prxs and 1-Cys Prxs by Wood et al. [40], based both on the different mechanism of action in peroxide reduction (the earliest recognized biological activity) and on their localization within the cell. This classification was later refined by Soito et al. [41], who identified six subfamilies (Prx1, Prx6, Prx5, PrxQ, Tpx and AhpE) two of which (AhpE and Tpx) exclusively present in prokaryotes [42].

Typical

The functions of Prxs

As described in the preceding sections, Prxs may play a bewildering array of apparently unrelated biochemical roles, not all of which have been confirmed in parasites. However some of these appear to be so general and widespread to suggest that they may be discovered also in parasites (notably in metazoans), thus we decided to include them in this summary.

Parasites Prxs: which activity is more crucial to virulence?

It has been widely shown that Prxs are ubiquitary in human pathogens, notably in parasites, and that they are virulence factors, as documented by the following examples. Reduction of Prx expression by genetic methods, such as gene knock-out (KO) or RNA interference (RNAi), has been demonstrated to be lethal for parasites both in vivo and in vitro. Strains of P. falciparum in which the Prx1a gene was knocked out exhibited hypersensitivity to heat stress and to oxidative stress induced by

Conclusions

Prxs are ubiquitous and play many physiological roles; they might constitute interesting pharmacological potential targets for several pathological conditions, that include some important parasitic diseases, like malaria, trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis. In this review we collected information on: (i) the main physiological roles of Prxs in parasites; (ii) the structural features that are critical to these roles; and (iii) the few available inhibitors capable to target either

Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under BioStruct-X (grant agreement N°283570), and from Sapienza University grants 2013 and 2014 to A.B. and A.E.M.

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