Search results for "Enzyme Precursors"
showing 8 items of 28 documents
Origin of the natural variation in the storage of dietary carotenoids in freshwater amphipod crustaceans
2020
16 pages; International audience; Carotenoids are diverse lipophilic natural pigments which are stored in variable amounts by animals. Given the multiple biological functions of carotenoids, such variation may have strong implications in evolutionary biology. Crustaceans such as Gammarus amphipods store large amounts of these pigments and inter-population variation occurs. While differences in parasite selective pressure have been proposed to explain this variation, the contribution of other factors such as genetic differences in the gammarid ability to assimilate and/or store pigments, and the environmental availability of carotenoids cannot be dismissed. This study investigates the relati…
Immune depression induced by acanthocephalan parasites in their intermediate crustacean host: consequences for the risk of super-infection and links …
2009
9 pages; International audience; Parasite survival in hosts mainly depends on the capacity to circumvent the host immune response. Acanthocephalan infections in gammarids are linked with decreased activity of the prophenoloxidase (ProPO) system, suggesting an active immunosuppression process. Nevertheless, experimental evidence for this hypothesis is lacking: whether these parasites affect several immune pathways is unknown and the consequences of such immune change have not been investigated. In particular, the consequences for other pathogens are not known; neither are the links with other parasite-induced manipulations of the host. Firstly, using experimental infections of Pomphorhynchus…
Analyzing the protease web in skin: meprin metalloproteases are activated specifically by KLK4, 5 and 8 vice versa leading to processing of proKLK7 t…
2010
Abstract The metalloproteases meprin α and β are expressed in several tissues, leukocytes, and cancer cells. In skin, meprins are located in separate layers of human epidermis indicating distinct physiological functions, supported by effects on cultured keratinocytes. Meprin β induces a dramatic change in cell morphology and a significant reduction in cell number, whereas in vitro evidence suggests a role for meprin α in basal keratinocyte proliferation. Meprins are secreted as zymogens that are activated by tryptic proteolytical processing. Here, we identify human kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) 4, 5, and 8 to be specific activators of meprins. KLK5 is capable of activating both metal…
Biological invasion and parasitism: invaders do not suffer from physiological alterations of the acanthocephalan Pomphorhynchus laevis.
2009
SUMMARYBiological invasions expose parasites to new invasive hosts in addition to their local hosts. However, local parasites are often less successful in infecting and exploiting their new hosts. This may have major consequences for the competitive ability of hosts, and finally on the fate of the parasite-host community. In Burgundy (Eastern France), the acanthocephalan parasite,Pomphorhynchus laevis, infects 2 amphipod species living in sympatry: the nativeGammarus pulexand the invasiveGammarus roeseli. WhileP. laevisaffects the behaviour and the immunity ofG. pulex,G. roeseliseems unaffected by the infection. In this study, we examined in detail the ability of the parasite to affect the …
Activation of complement by the alternative pathway as a factor in the pathogenesis of periodontal disease.
1976
Dental plaque and a bacterium, Actinomyces viscosus, isolated from plaque that can reproduce periodontal disease in germ-free rats, are activators of complement by the alternative pathway. It is suggested that this process is involved in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory periodontal disease.
Insect Immune Evasion by Dauer and Nondauer Entomopathogenic Nematodes
2021
The immune response of animals, including insects, is overcome by some parasites. For example, dauer larvae (DL) of the obligate entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) Heterorhabditis and Steinernema can invade insects, evade their defenses, and cause death. Although DL were long assumed to be the only infective stage of nematodes, recent reports suggest that L2-L3 larvae of facultative EPNs are also capable of killing insects. There are no studies, to our knowledge, about the role of nonimmunological barriers (the exoskeleton and its openings) in avoiding infection by DL and L2-L3 larvae, or whether these larval stages evade the host immune system in the same way. The objective of this study wa…
Effect of digitonin on membrane-bound and chitosomal chitin synthetase activity in protoplasts from yeast cells ofCandida albicans
1993
The effect of digitonin on chitin synthetase present in membrane (MMF) and cytoplasmic fractions (chitosomes) (CF) from C. albicans yeast protoplasts has been determined. The zymogen is preferentially, but not exclusively, solubilized by digitonin from MMF. Centrifugation of distinct solubilized preparations, containing either zymogen, in vivo active enzyme and/or trypsin activated enzyme, on linear sucrose gradients suggests that both zymogen and trypsin activated enzyme sediment slightly slower than the active enzyme, pointing out differences between the activation processes in vivo and in vitro or, alternatively, that both enzyme activities (active in vivo and zymogenic) correspond to di…
Stimulation with carbachol alters endomembrane distribution and plasma membrane expression of intracellular proteins in lacrimal acinar cells.
2000
The events that lead to Sjogren's autoimmune processes in the lacrimal gland remain poorly understood. The acinar cell's responses to acute cholinergic stimulation include release of secretory products across the apical plasma membrane (apm) and a number of processes related to traffic between endomembrane compartments and the basal-lateral plasma membranes (blm), such as recruitment of Na, K-ATPase, accelerated recycling, and accelerated transcytosis of secretory IgA. We tested the hypothesis that stimulation-induced acceleration of endomembrane traffic is accompanied by changes in compartmentation and increased blm expression of proteins that are normally sequestered in endomembrane compa…