| Summary: | Molecular and biochemical features of three enzymes that may serve as new drug targets in Cryptosporidium parvum Cryptosporidium parvum is a unicellular, obligatory and intracellular parasite belonging to the Phylum Apicomplexa. This parasite can infect both humans and animals, causing an acute diarrhea in immunocompetent persons, and a chronic life threatening infection in immunocompromised individuals. Although many drugs, to combat this parasite, have been empirically tested, there is no completely effective therapy to treat cryptosporidiosis in humans or animals. In recent years, the completion of the genome sequencing projects in C. parvum and C. hominis along with advances in molecular methods have significantly helped to increase our general understanding of the C. parvum metabolic machinery. However, our knowledge concerning many specific pathways and enzymes in Cryptosporidium is still limited. Their better understanding in this organism would aid in experimentation of new drugs and new strategy development to treat cryptosporidiosis in humans and animals. In this dissertation, three essential metabolic enzymes of C. parvum have been tested: Pyruvate:NADP + oxidoreductase (PNO) is a unique, core metabolic enzyme, responsible for converting pyruvate to acetyl-CoA. It is a rare fusion of an...
|
|---|
