Antigenic variation in Giardia lamblia

Giardia lamblia undergoes antigenic variation, both in vitro and within the intestines of infected individuals. Variant-specific surface proteins (VSPs) cover the entire surface of the trophozoites and are the main antigens recognized by the host. Only 1 of about 200 VSP genes encoded by the Giardi...

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Autores principales: Prucca, César Germán, Luján, Hugo Daniel
Formato: Artículo
Lenguaje:Español
Publicado: 2009
Materias:
R Medicina (General)
Acceso en línea:http://pa.bibdigital.ucc.edu.ar/4923/1/Cellular%20Microbiology%20-%202009%20-%20Prucca%20-%20Antigenic%20variation%20in%20Giardia%20lamblia.pdf
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Producción Académica Universidad Católica de Córdoba (UCCor) de Universidad Católica de Córdoba
id I38-R144-4923
record_format dspace
spelling I38-R144-49232025-10-24T16:31:39Z http://pa.bibdigital.ucc.edu.ar/4923/ Antigenic variation in Giardia lamblia Prucca, César Germán Luján, Hugo Daniel R Medicina (General) Giardia lamblia undergoes antigenic variation, both in vitro and within the intestines of infected individuals. Variant-specific surface proteins (VSPs) cover the entire surface of the trophozoites and are the main antigens recognized by the host. Only 1 of about 200 VSP genes encoded by the Giardia genome is expressed on the surface of individual Giardia cells at any time; however, VSP antigen switching occurs spontaneously. In the recent year, significant advances in the knowledge of the antigen switching process have been achieved, which strongly suggests that antigenic variation in Giardia is regulated at the posttranscriptional level by a mechanism similar to RNA interference (RNAi). Several enzymes of the RNAi pathway are directly involved in VSP mRNA silencing and/or translational repression. Although several questions remain regarding how individual VSP antigens are selected for expression on the parasite surface, it is clear that an epigenetic mechanism is involved. In this review, we summarize the characteristics of this fascinating mechanism, analyse conflicting information regarding the structure of VSPs as it relates to the host’s immune response, and highlight the major issues that need to be resolved to fully understand antigenic variation in this important pathogen. 2009-12-31 application/pdf spa http://pa.bibdigital.ucc.edu.ar/4923/1/Cellular%20Microbiology%20-%202009%20-%20Prucca%20-%20Antigenic%20variation%20in%20Giardia%20lamblia.pdf Prucca, César Germán ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4165-4660 <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4165-4660> and Luján, Hugo Daniel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3797-8315 <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3797-8315> (2009) Antigenic variation in Giardia lamblia. Cellular Microbiology. info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1111/j.1462-5822.2009.01367.x info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo Fil: Prucca, César G. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud; Argentina Fil: Luján, Hugo Daniel. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud; Argentina info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.es
institution Universidad Católica de Córdoba
institution_str I-38
repository_str R-144
collection Producción Académica Universidad Católica de Córdoba (UCCor)
language Español
orig_language_str_mv spa
topic R Medicina (General)
spellingShingle R Medicina (General)
Prucca, César Germán
Luján, Hugo Daniel
Antigenic variation in Giardia lamblia
topic_facet R Medicina (General)
description Giardia lamblia undergoes antigenic variation, both in vitro and within the intestines of infected individuals. Variant-specific surface proteins (VSPs) cover the entire surface of the trophozoites and are the main antigens recognized by the host. Only 1 of about 200 VSP genes encoded by the Giardia genome is expressed on the surface of individual Giardia cells at any time; however, VSP antigen switching occurs spontaneously. In the recent year, significant advances in the knowledge of the antigen switching process have been achieved, which strongly suggests that antigenic variation in Giardia is regulated at the posttranscriptional level by a mechanism similar to RNA interference (RNAi). Several enzymes of the RNAi pathway are directly involved in VSP mRNA silencing and/or translational repression. Although several questions remain regarding how individual VSP antigens are selected for expression on the parasite surface, it is clear that an epigenetic mechanism is involved. In this review, we summarize the characteristics of this fascinating mechanism, analyse conflicting information regarding the structure of VSPs as it relates to the host’s immune response, and highlight the major issues that need to be resolved to fully understand antigenic variation in this important pathogen.
format Artículo
Artículo
author Prucca, César Germán
Luján, Hugo Daniel
author_facet Prucca, César Germán
Luján, Hugo Daniel
author_sort Prucca, César Germán
title Antigenic variation in Giardia lamblia
title_short Antigenic variation in Giardia lamblia
title_full Antigenic variation in Giardia lamblia
title_fullStr Antigenic variation in Giardia lamblia
title_full_unstemmed Antigenic variation in Giardia lamblia
title_sort antigenic variation in giardia lamblia
publishDate 2009
url http://pa.bibdigital.ucc.edu.ar/4923/1/Cellular%20Microbiology%20-%202009%20-%20Prucca%20-%20Antigenic%20variation%20in%20Giardia%20lamblia.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT pruccacesargerman antigenicvariationingiardialamblia
AT lujanhugodaniel antigenicvariationingiardialamblia
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