A second project concerns the mechanism of As(III) resistance in the tropical parasite Leishmania. Leishmania resistant to arsenicals and antimonials extrude arsenite. Previous results of arsenite uptake into plasma membrane-enriched vesicles suggested that the transported species is a thiol adduct of arsenite. We demonstrated that promastigotes of arsenite-resistant L. tarentolae have increased levels of intracellular thiols. High pressure liquid chromatography of the total thiols showed that a single peak of material was elevated almost 40-fold. The major species in this peak was identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) as N1,N8-bis-(glutathionyl)spermidine (trypanothione). The trypanothione adduct of arsenite was effectively transported by the As-thiol pump. No difference in pump activity was observed in wild type and mutants. A model for drug resistance is proposed in which Sb(V)/As(V)-containing compounds, including the antileishmanial drug Pentostam, are reduced intracellularly to Sb(III)/As(III), conjugated to trypanothione, and extruded by the As-thiol pump. The rate limiting step in resistance is formation of the metalloid-thiol pump substrates, so that increased synthesis of trypanothione produces resistance. Increased synthesis of the substrate rather than an increase in the number of pump molecules is a novel mechanism for drug resistance.
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