Ana Paula Cabral de Araújo Lima
Ana Paula Cabral de Araújo Lima (UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro/Brazil)
Natural protease inhibitors in pathogenic protozoa
Laboratory of Protease Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Instituto de Biofisica Carlos ChagasFilho
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
Infectious parasitic diseases are still endemic in many tropical and sub-tropical countries. Among the most prevalent parasitic diseases, infections caused by protozoa of the genus Leishmania, by Trypanosomacruzi and by Trypanosomabrucei pose as a challenge for governments and researchers, since there are no widely effective vaccines and treatments are often unsatisfactory and toxic. Despite advances in the search for new molecular targets in the parasites, for new drugs and in the studies of the immune response in experimental infection models, the knowledge of the mechanisms that lead to disease pathology is still limited, preventing the development of effective alternative chemotherapies.
In our line of study, we investigate the molecular and cellular mechanisms associated with proteolysis that govern fundamental processes in host-parasite interactions and contribute to the development of diseases and to the control of the immune response. We investigate how natural peptidase inhibitors produced by Leishmania, T. cruzi or T. brucei affect cellular invasion and the modulation of innate responses in the mammalian host
