Taxonomic group: protista / Euglenozoa
(Phylum: Euglenozoa)
Host organism: (mammal)
Organ / tissue: Life stage: epimastigoteAssociated disease: Chagas disease [ICD11:
1F53 
, ICD11:
XN56V ];
infection due to Trypanosoma cruzi [ICD11:
XN56V ]
NCBI PubMed ID: 32867240Publication DOI: 10.3390/molecules25173913Journal NLM ID: 100964009Publisher: Basel, Switzerland: MDPI
Correspondence: lederk
qo.fcen.uba.ar
Institutions: Departamento de Química Orgánica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Centro de Investigaciones en Hidratos de Carbono (CIHIDECAR), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires 1428, Argentina
Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoa that causes Chagas disease in humans, is transmitted by insects from the Reduviidae family. The parasite has developed the ability to change the structure of the surface molecules, depending on the host. Among them, the mucins are the most abundant glycoproteins. Structural studies have focused on the epimastigotes and metacyclic trypomastigotes that colonize the insect, and on the mammal trypomastigotes. The carbohydrate in the mucins fulfills crucial functions, the most important of which being the accepting of sialic acid from the host, a process catalyzed by the unique parasite trans-sialidase. The sialylation of the parasite influences the immune response on infection. The O-linked sugars have characteristics that differentiate them from human mucins. One of them is the linkage to the polypeptide chain by the hexosamine, GlcNAc, instead of GalNAc. The main monosaccharide in the mucins oligosaccharides is galactose, and this may be present in three configurations. Whereas β-d-galactopyranose (β-Galp) was found in the insect and the human stages of Trypanosoma cruzi, β-d-galactofuranose (β-Galf) is present only in the mucins of some strains of epimastigotes and α-d-galactopyranose (α-Galp) characterizes the mucins of the bloodstream trypomastigotes. The two last configurations confer high antigenic properties. In this review we discuss the different structures found and we pose the questions that still need investigation on the exchange of the configurations of galactose.
sialic acid, Trypanosoma cruzi, mucins, α-galactopyranose, β-galactofuranose
Structure type: oligomer
Location inside paper: table 1, core 2 in the mucin, compound 9
Trivial name: mucin oligosaccharide
Compound class: O-glycan
Contained glycoepitopes: IEDB_135813,IEDB_136044,IEDB_136095,IEDB_137340,IEDB_137472,IEDB_141794,IEDB_141807,IEDB_151531,IEDB_190606,IEDB_241097,SB_165,SB_166,SB_187,SB_195,SB_7,SB_88
Synthetic data: chemical
Comments, role: review
NCBI Taxonomy refs (TaxIDs): 5693,
1416333
Show glycosyltransferases
There is only one chemically distinct structure:
Found 
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