Expanding the knowledge of the chemical structure of glycoconjugates from Trypanosoma cruzi TcI genotype. Contribution to taxonomic studies

Abstract

One of the main obstacles to the treatment of Chagas disease is the genetic and phenotypical variance displayed by T. cruzi strains, resulting in differences in morphology, virulence, pathogenicity and drug susceptibility. To better understand the role of glycoconjungates in Chagas disease, we performed the molecular characterization of the O-linked chains from mucins and glycoinositolphospholipids (GIPLs) of the Silvio X10 clone 1 strain. We demonstrated the presence of a β-galactofuranose (β-Galf) unity linked to the O-4 position of the α-N-acetylglucosamine (α-GlcNAc)O-4 in Tc-mucins. GIPLs analysis showed that the lipidic portion is exclusively composed of ceramide and the PI-oligossacharidic portion contains the Man4(AEP)GlcN-Ins-PO 4 core, substituted by ethanolamine-phosphate (EtNP) on the third distal mannose from inositol, which may or may not have a terminal β Galf unity. These results confirm the classification of the Silvio X10/1 strain in group T. cruzi I. Again, it is noted that the study of T. cruzi surface glycoconjugates confirm the molecular results and the hypothesis that surface glycoconjugates may be interesting biomarker for the differentiation of trypanosomatid strains.

The Glycan Structure of T. cruzi mucins Depends on the Host. Insights on the Chameleonic Galactose

“…On studying the fine structure of the glycans in several strains, it was concluded that core 2 was found in the mucins of strains belonging to DTU I isolated from sylvatic hosts, namely G strain [ 47 , 48 ], Colombiana [ 50 ], Dm28c [ 49 ] and Silvio X10/1 [ 85 ], and also in the hybrid Tulahuen strain [ 51 ], classified as DTU VI. A sialylated oligosaccharide was also identified in the mucins from Dm28c.…”