The Journal of Cell Biology, Vol 99, 79-82, Copyright © 1984 by The Rockefeller University Press
Specific inhibition of the differentiation of Trypanosoma cruzi
GT Williams
The morphological transformation of Trypanosoma cruzi amastigotes was
studied in both mammalian cells and an extracellular differentiation
system. Inhibitors of ADP-ribosyl transferase were found to block
differentiation in both cases, without affecting proliferation. The
inhibitory effect was reversible and was not observed with chemical
analogues that do not inhibit ADP-ribosyl transferase. As inhibitors of
ADP-ribosyl transferase have recently been shown to block the
differentiation of several cell types from vertebrates (Farzaneh, F., R.
Zalin, D. Brill, and S. Shall, 1982, Nature (Lond.), 300:362-366;
Johnstone, A. P., and G. T. Williams, 1982, Nature (Lond.), 300:368- 370),
our results suggest that the enzyme is of general importance in eucaryotic
differentiation both in multicellular and unicellular organisms. In
addition, since the compounds can block T. cruzi differentiation inside
mammalian cells, these results suggest that it may be possible to exploit
such inhibition in a new and potentially powerful approach to the
chemotherapy of several important parasitic diseases.
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