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Glucose Transporters in Parasitic Protozoa

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Membrane Transporters in Drug Discovery and Development

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 637))

Abstract

Glucose and related hexoses play central roles in the biochemistry and metabolism of single-cell parasites such as Leishmania, Trypanosoma, and Plasmodium that are the causative agents of leishmaniasis, African sleeping sickness, and malaria. Glucose transporters and the genes that encode them have been identified in each of these parasites and their functional properties have been scrutinized. These transporters are related in sequence and structure to mammalian facilitative glucose transporters of the SLC2 family, but they are nonetheless quite divergent in sequence. Hexose transporters have been shown to be essential for the viability of the infectious stage of each of these parasites and thus may represent targets for development of novel anti-parasitic drugs. The study of these transporters also illuminates many aspects of the basic biology of Leishmania, trypanosomes, and malaria parasites.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Dr. Richard Burchmore for communicating unpublished data regarding murine infections with L. mexicana glucose transporter null mutants and protein expression in these null mutants and for providing a critical reading of the chapter. Images for figures included in this chapter were provided by Cosmo Buffalo, Dayana Rodriguez-Contreras, and Marco Sanchez in the author’s laboratory. This work was supported by grant number AI25920 from the National Institutes of Health.

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  1. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA

    Scott M. Landfear

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  1. PharmTao, Santa Clara, USA

    Qing Yan

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Landfear, S.M. (2010). Glucose Transporters in Parasitic Protozoa. In: Yan, Q. (eds) Membrane Transporters in Drug Discovery and Development. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 637. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-700-6_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-700-6_13

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