The major surface protease (MSP or GP63) of Leishmania sp

The major surface protease (MSP or GP63) of Leishmania sp. regulation of amebic adherence, silencing also resulted in reduced mobility on tissue culture cell monolayers and in increased phagocytosis. In conclusion, EhMSP-1 was shown to be a surface metalloprotease involved in regulation of amebic adherence, with additional effects on cell motility, cell monolayer destruction, and phagocytosis. INTRODUCTION Amebiasis, which is caused by invasive infection, remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality globally (19). After excystation, invasive amebic infection begins with adherence of trophozoites to intestinal mucus and epithelial cells (13, 14, 26, 42). Trophozoites then degrade the mucus and epithelial layers by secreting proteases and contact-dependent cell killing, which is followed by amebic phagocytosis of killed cells and migration into the tissue (26C28, 39, 44). Numerous proteases are encoded by the genome. Of these, to date, research has focused primarily on a large family of secreted and cell surface cysteine proteases, which have been firmly linked to amebic virulence (1, 10, 38, 43). As is the case for many proteases, the amebic cysteine proteases are promising drug targets, and specific cysteine protease inhibitors have been identified that prevent proteases. Leishmanolysin (also called gp63), the founding member of the M8 family of metalloendopeptidases, is essential for virulence of and is a leading candidate for vaccine development (55). M8 metalloproteases are defined by presence of a zinc-binding HEXXH catalytic site motif, a third zinc-binding His residue located further toward the C terminus, and a highly conserved Met residue C terminal to the third His (45). Leishmanolysin is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored surface metalloprotease that is expressed abundantly on promastigotes (55). It degrades extracellular matrix proteins during tissue invasion and prevents complement-mediated lysis of promastigotes by inactivating C3b deposited on the cell membrane (i.e., converting C3b to iC3b) and degrading C5 (9, 40). Orthologous surface metallopeptidases in both and are also required for virulence, although their function differs from that of leishmanolysin (18, 23, 33). For example, leishmanolysin orthologues function during antigenic variation by removing the variant surface glycoprotein that is being replaced from the surface of bloodstream trypanosomes (33). Gene sequences encoding orthologous M8 metalloproteases are also present in nonpathogenic species, such as M8 metalloprotease invadolysin gene results in defects in cell migration during embryogenesis (37). Invadolysin localizes to the leading edge of migrating cells, suggesting that it plays an active role in THIP cell migration, but this remains to be directly tested. Two leishmanolysin homologues are encoded in the genome, but only one copy of the gene is present in the closely related commensal organism metallosurface protease 1 (EhMSP-1) for the was one of 87 genes with significant differential expression (2-fold) in a recent microarray analysis comparing gene expression in virulent and avirulent trophozoite strains derived from the same genetic background (mRNA levels were more THIP than 20-fold higher in the THIP avirulent strain) (5). On the basis of these data and the fundamental FGF21 contributions of leishmanolysin and its orthologues to and virulence, we decided to characterize the surface metalloproteases, beginning with the pathogen-specific family member EhMSP-1. Here, we show that EhMSP-1 is an active metalloprotease whose presence on the cell surface is regulated during cell culture. Trophozoites made deficient in EhMSP-1 by gene expression knockdown were characterized resistance to complement. MATERIALS AND METHODS Antibodies. The sources of commercially available antibodies are indicated where each use is described. Non THIP commercially available antibodies were as follows. The anti-Gal-GalNAc lectin mouse monoclonal antibody (MAb) (clone 3D12) was a gift from William A. Petri (University of Virginia, Charlottesville), the antiproteophosphoglycan mouse monoclonal antibody (clone EH5) was a gift from Michael.