| Type: | Family | Name: | Trypanosome sialidase |
| Description: | Trypanosoma cruziis a kinetoplastid protozoan parasite of humans and other animals, the causative agent of Chagas, disease. It is transmitted viaan insect vector, and exists as an intracellular form, the amastigote, or as a trypomastigote form in the blood after infection. In the humanhost, chronic infection by T. cruzi affects the nervous system and heart, leading to various neurological disorders, damage to the heart muscle andeventually death. The parasite expresses a variety of virulence factors in order to successfully invade the mammalian or insect host. One of these isunique to the genus Trypanosoma, a sialic acid-metabolising enzyme, dubbed "trans-sialidase" [], classified as a member of glycosyl hydrolasefamily 33. The protein catalyses the transfer of host cell sialic acids to acceptor receptors on the protozoan cell membrane, allowing the parasite toevade the immune response and enter the cell undetected. It also acts as the major 85kDa surface antigen of T. cruzi, and exhibits neuraminidaseactivity similar to that of some pathogenic viruses [].Research into the gene has revealed a massive diversity in the expression of this surface antigen/sialidase []. The variation in its amino acidsequences begs the question why such a successful parasite should need so many different versions of the same virulence factor.In addition to Trypanosoma spp., this entry also matches a number of bacterial sialidases. | Short Name: | Sialidase_trypan |
