Protein kinases on carbon metabolism: potential targets for alternative chemotherapies against toxoplasmosis

Abstract

The apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is the causative agent of toxoplasmosis, a global disease that significantly impacts human health. The clinical manifestations are mainly observed in immunocompromised patients, including ocular damage and neuronal alterations leading to psychiatric disorders. The congenital infection leads to miscarriage or severe alterations in the development of newborns. The conventional treatment is limited to the acute phase of illness, without effects in latent parasites; consequently, a cure is not available yet. Furthermore, considerable toxic effects and long-term therapy contribute to high treatment abandonment rates. The investigation of exclusive parasite pathways would provide new drug targets for more effective therapies, eliminating or reducing the side effects of conventional pharmacological approaches. Protein kinases (PKs) have emerged as promising targets for developing specific inhibitors with high selectivity and efficiency against diseases. Studies in T. gondii have indicated the presence of exclusive PKs without homologs in human cells, which could become important targets for developing new drugs. Knockout of specific kinases linked to energy metabolism have shown to impair the parasite development, reinforcing the essentiality of these enzymes in parasite metabolism. In addition, the specificities found in the PKs that regulate the energy metabolism in this parasite could bring new perspectives for safer and more efficient therapies for treating toxoplasmosis. Therefore, this review provides an overview of the limitations for reaching an efficient treatment and explores the role of PKs in regulating carbon metabolism in Toxoplasma, discussing their potential as targets for more applied and efficient pharmacological approaches.

Proteomics Applications in Toxoplasma gondii: Unveiling the Host–Parasite Interactions and Therapeutic Target Discovery

“…The objective was to obtain information about which proteins could regulate their activity through this PTM. Although it is common to both parasites, T. gondii possesses several kinases, including protein kinase A, protein kinase G, rhoptries, calciumdependent kinases, etc., which play important roles in various biological processes, such as invasion, egress, DNA and parasite replication, pathogenesis, differentiation, and energy metabolism [114][115][116][117][118][119]. The T. gondii phosphoproteome was generated based on two sources: intracellular tachyzoites and tachyzoites purified from cell cultures in which secreted parasite proteins were discarded [113].…”