Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is an important protozoan parasite of man and animals. In recent years, its importance as a human pathogen has grown with its appearance as a potentially fatal opportunistic pathogen in AIDS patients. Our primary objective is to determine the structure and function of several major antigens from the growing forms of this parasite and use this information to control the disease. We are also interested in the biological functions of some of these molecules from the perspective of the parasite. To date, we have identified several recombinants which appear to encode the major surface antigen, a penetration-enhancing factor and several other antigens of unknown function. All the recombinants are being characterized by nucleotide sequence analysis and with respect to their in vivo coding function. in this application we request funds to continue this work with the ultimate goal of assessing the utility of these recombinant antigens to serve as the source of material for immunization and/or sero-diagnosis. They will be further used in studies on the basic biology of the parasite with the aim of determining the structure/function relationship for each molecule.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01AI021423-04A1
Application #
3131530
Study Section
Tropical Medicine and Parasitology Study Section (TMP)
Project Start
1985-07-01
Project End
1994-07-31
Budget Start
1989-09-30
Budget End
1990-07-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
1989
Total Cost
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
Stanford University
Department
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
800771545
City
Stanford
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94305

  Publications

Guiton, Pascale S; Sagawa, Janelle M; Fritz, Heather M et al. (2017) An in vitro model of intestinal infection reveals a developmentally regulated transcriptome of Toxoplasma sporozoites and a NF-?B-like signature in infected host cells. PLoS One 12:e0173018
Child, Matthew A; Garland, Megan; Foe, Ian et al. (2017) Toxoplasma DJ-1 Regulates Organelle Secretion by a Direct Interaction with Calcium-Dependent Protein Kinase 1. MBio 8:
Krishnamurthy, Shruthi; Deng, Bin; Del Rio, Roxana et al. (2016) Not a Simple Tether: Binding of Toxoplasma gondii AMA1 to RON2 during Invasion Protects AMA1 from Rhomboid-Mediated Cleavage and Leads to Dephosphorylation of Its Cytosolic Tail. MBio 7:
Han, Seong-Ji; Melichar, Heather J; Coombes, Janine L et al. (2014) Internalization and TLR-dependent type I interferon production by monocytes in response to Toxoplasma gondii. Immunol Cell Biol 92:872-81
Christian, David A; Koshy, Anita A; Reuter, Morgan A et al. (2014) Use of transgenic parasites and host reporters to dissect events that promote interleukin-12 production during toxoplasmosis. Infect Immun 82:4056-67
Franco, Magdalena; Shastri, Anjali J; Boothroyd, John C (2014) Infection by Toxoplasma gondii specifically induces host c-Myc and the genes this pivotal transcription factor regulates. Eukaryot Cell 13:483-93
Child, Matthew A; Hall, Carolyn I; Beck, Josh R et al. (2013) Small-molecule inhibition of a depalmitoylase enhances Toxoplasma host-cell invasion. Nat Chem Biol 9:651-6
Poukchanski, Anna; Fritz, Heather M; Tonkin, Michelle L et al. (2013) Toxoplasma gondii sporozoites invade host cells using two novel paralogues of RON2 and AMA1. PLoS One 8:e70637
Boothroyd, John C (2013) Have it your way: how polymorphic, injected kinases and pseudokinases enable toxoplasma to subvert host defenses. PLoS Pathog 9:e1003296
Fritz, Heather M; Buchholz, Kerry R; Chen, Xiucui et al. (2012) Transcriptomic analysis of toxoplasma development reveals many novel functions and structures specific to sporozoites and oocysts. PLoS One 7:e29998

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