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Identification and characterization of the hemoglobin-binding domain of hemoglobin receptor in Leishmania

Ruchir Rastogi1, Jitender Kumar Verma2, Vijay Singh1

  • 1National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India.

FEBS Letters
|December 14, 2020
PubMed

Leishmania internalize hemoglobin (Hb) via a specific receptor (HbR) for their survival. To identify the Hb-binding domain of HbR, we cloned and expressed several truncated proteins of HbR and determined their ability to bind Hb. Our findings reveal that 90% of Hb-binding activity is retained in HbR41-80 in comparison with HbR1-471 . We synthesized a 40 amino acid peptide (SSEKMKQLTMYMIHEMVEGLEGRPSTVRMLPSFVYTSDPA) corresponding to HbR41-80 and found that it specifically binds Hb. Subsequently, we found that the HbR41-80 peptide completely blocks Hb uptake in both promastigote and amastigote forms of Leishmania and, thereby, inhibits the growth of the parasite. These results demonstrate that HbR41-80 is the Hb-binding domain of HbR, which might be used as a potential therapeutic agent to inhibit the growth of Leishmania.

Keywords:
Leishmaniadomainendocytosishemoglobinreceptor

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