Estudo sobre moléculas com atividade hemoglobinolítica em Angiostrongylus costaricensis e Angiostrongylus cantonensis

• Ano de defesa: 2009
• Autor(a) principal: Ramos, Raquel Rocha
• Orientador(a): Graeff-Teixeira, Carlos
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul; Porto Alegre
• Palavras-chave em Português: BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR; BIOLOGIA CELULAR; PARASITOS; HEMOGLOBINA
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/10923/1300

The two main species in the genus Angiostrongylus that cause human disease are A. cantonensis and A. costaricensis. These parasites have different tissue tropism, A. cantonesis is neurotropic and causes eosinophilic meningoencephalitis, A. costaricensis is located in the mesentery causing abdominal angiostrongyliasis. Immunological tests currently used for angiostrongyliasis diagnosis are limited by low especificity. Otherwise, specialized functional proteins, such as enzymes, may lead to more specific reactivity. The aim of the present work is to identify hemoglobinotytic activity in A. cantonensis. Digestive organs from the female worms were homogenized in lyses buffer. The protein extract (AcPE) was incubated whit bovine hemoglobin (BHh) at different pH range. Zymography assay was carried out by copolimerized SDS-PAGE with either 0. 4% BHb or 0. 1% gelatin. Hemoglobin degradation was well demonstrated at an extensive pH range, from 3. 0 to 7. 0. No degradation bands were detected by zymography either with gelatin or hemoglobin as substrate. These limited data from zymography and those from pH titration may suggest that AcPE contains not a single component but a low abundance enzyme complex. The identification, characterization and clonning of molecules with hemoglobinolytic activity stays as a prioritary aim.