RESEARCH ARTICLE
Structures of Glycolipids Found in Trypanosomatids: Contribution to Parasite Functions
Eliana Barreto-Bergter*, Alane Beatriz Vermelho
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2010Volume: 4
First Page: 84
Last Page: 97
Publisher ID: TOPARAJ-4-84
DOI: 10.2174/1874421401004010084
Article History:
Received Date: 28/2/2010Revision Received Date: 12/7/2010
Acceptance Date: 13/7/2010
Electronic publication date: 10/12/2010
Collection year: 2010
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Neutral monohexosylceramides (CMHs) globosides (globotriasyl ceramides), other glycosphingolipids (GSLs) and more complex structures such as glycoinositol-phospholipids(GIPLs) and glycosyl phosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchors have been described in several members of the trypanosomatid family. These highly bioactive molecules are not only components of biological structures but also participants in host-parasite interactions such as macrophage invasion, antigenic presentation and signal transduction. Glycolipid structures have been studied using mass spectrometry (MS).This review describes a wide range of glycoconjugates with unique and complex structures that are present in several trypanosomatid species. Their structures are described in the context of their biological significance.