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PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
1
pubmed:dateCreated
2011-3-7
pubmed:abstractText
The trematode Schistosoma mansoni is the primary cause of schistosomiasis, a devastating neglected tropical disease that affects 200 million individuals. Identifying novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of schistosomiasis is therefore of great public interest. The catecholamines norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA) are essential for the survival of the parasite as they cause muscular relaxation and a lengthening in the parasite and thereby control movement. Here we characterize a novel dopamine/norepinephrine transporter (SmDAT) gene transcript, from S. mansoni. The SmDAT is expressed in the adult form and in the sporocyst form (infected snails) of the parasite, and also in the egg and miracidium stage. It is absent in the cercariae stage but curiously a transcript missing the exon encoding transmembrane domain 8 was identified in this stage. Heterologous expression of the cDNA in mammalian cells resulted in saturable, dopamine transport activity with an apparent affinity for dopamine comparable to that of the human dopamine transporter. Efflux experiments reveal notably higher substrate selectivity compared with its mammalian counterparts as amphetamine is a much less potent efflux elicitor against SmDAT compared to the human DAT. Pharmacological characterization of the SmDAT revealed that most human DAT inhibitors including psychostimulants such as cocaine were significantly less potent in inhibiting SmDAT. Like DATs from other simpler organisms the pharmacology for SmDAT was more similar to the human norepinephrine transporter. We were not able to identify other dopamine transporting carriers within the completed parasite genome and we hypothesize that the SmDAT is the only catecholamine transporter in the parasite and could be responsible for not only clearing DA but also NE.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
May
pubmed:issn
1872-9428
pubmed:author
pubmed:copyrightInfo
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:volume
177
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
35-41
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Amino Acid Sequence, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Animals, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Autonomic Agents, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Catecholamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Catecholamines, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Cell Line, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Helminth Proteins, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Humans, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Mice, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Mice, Inbred BALB C, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Molecular Sequence Data, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Protein Structure, Tertiary, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Schistosoma mansoni, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Schistosomiasis mansoni, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Snails, pubmed-meshheading:21251927-Substrate Specificity
pubmed:year
2011
pubmed:articleTitle
A catecholamine transporter from the human parasite Schistosoma mansoni with low affinity for psychostimulants.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, PA 15260, USA.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't