Transport of essential metabolites in trypanosomatids

Abstract

Infections caused by the protozoan parasites from the genus Trypanosoma and Leishmania are among the most relevantpublic health problems in the developing countries. These parasites present several metabolic characteristics which arecompletely absent in their insects and mammalian hosts. Some of the differences were acquired after millions of years ofadaptation to parasitism, in which this protozoan replaced, along its evolution, many biosynthetic routes for transportsystems. In the proposed chapter we will describe the advances in the knowledge of transport systems and the moleculesinvolved in such processes from the first biochemical description to the post-genomic era including the future perspectivesin this area. In particular, we will focus the attention on amino acids and polyamines transporters from the AAAP family(Amino Acid/Auxin Permeases), because they seem to be unique to Trypanosomatids. Considering that these permeasesare completely absent in mammals they could be put forward as a potential target against Trypanosomatid parasites.