Biosynthesis of Galactofuranose in Kinetoplastids:  Novel Therapeutic Targets for Treating Leishmaniasis and Chagas' Disease

Oppenheimer, Michelle; Valenciano Murillo, Ana L.; Sobrado, Pablo

Biosynthesis of Galactofuranose in Kinetoplastids: Novel Therapeutic Targets for Treating Leishmaniasis and Chagas' Disease

dc.contributor.author	Oppenheimer, Michelle	en
dc.contributor.author	Valenciano Murillo, Ana L.	en
dc.contributor.author	Sobrado, Pablo	en
dc.contributor.department	Biochemistry	en
dc.date.accessioned	2017-09-18T09:52:03Z	en
dc.date.available	2017-09-18T09:52:03Z	en
dc.date.issued	2011-05-25	en
dc.date.updated	2017-09-18T09:52:02Z	en
dc.description.abstract	Cell surface proteins of parasites play a role in pathogenesis by modulating mammalian cell recognition and cell adhesion during infection. β-Galactofuranose (Galf) is an important component of glycoproteins and glycolipids found on the cell surface of Leishmania spp. and Trypanosoma cruzi. β-Galf-containing glycans have been shown to be important in parasite-cell interaction and protection against oxidative stress. Here, we discuss the role of β-Galf in pathogenesis and recent studies on the Galf-biosynthetic enzymes: UDP-galactose 4′ epimerase (GalE), UDP-galactopyranose mutase (UGM), and UDP-galactofuranosyl transferase (GalfT). The central role in Galf formation, its unique chemical mechanism, and the absence of a homologous enzyme in humans identify UGM as the most attractive drug target in the β-Galf-biosynthetic pathway in protozoan parasites.	en
dc.description.version	Published version	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	Michelle Oppenheimer, Ana L. Valenciano, and Pablo Sobrado, “Biosynthesis of Galactofuranose in Kinetoplastids: Novel Therapeutic Targets for Treating Leishmaniasis and Chagas' Disease,” Enzyme Research, vol. 2011, Article ID 415976, 13 pages, 2011. doi:10.4061/2011/415976	en
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.4061/2011/415976	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10919/79021	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	Hindawi	en
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International	en
dc.rights.holder	Copyright © 2011 Michelle Oppenheimer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	en
dc.title	Biosynthesis of Galactofuranose in Kinetoplastids: Novel Therapeutic Targets for Treating Leishmaniasis and Chagas' Disease	en
dc.title.serial	Enzyme Research	en
dc.type	Article - Refereed	en
dc.type.dcmitype	Text	en