Temporal analysis of the autophagic and apoptotic phenotypes in Leishmania parasites
Authors:Louise Basmaciyan1, Laurence Berry2, Julie Gros3, Nadine Azas3 and Magali Casanova3
doi: 10.15698/mic2018.09.646
Volume 5, pp. 404 to 417, published 01/08/2018.
1 UMR PAM A, Valmis team, 2 rue Angélique Ducoudray, BP 37013, 21070 Dijon Cedex, France.
2 Dynamique des Interactions Membranaires Normales et Pathologiques, CNRS UMR 5235, University of Montpellier, France.
3 Aix Marseille Univ, IRD, AP-HM, SSA, VITROME, IHU-Méditerranée Infection, Marseille, France.
Keywords:
Leishmania, apoptosis, autophagy, markers, staurosporine
Corresponding Author(s):
Conflict of interest statement:
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Please cite this article as:
Louise Basmaciyan, Laurence Berry, Julie Gros, Nadine Azas and Magali Casanova (2018). Temporal analysis of the autophagic and apoptotic phenotypes in Leishmania parasites. Microbial Cell 5(9): 404-417. doi: 10.15698/mic2018.09.646
© 2018 Basmaciyan et al. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
Abstract:
The leishmaniases are worldwide neglected tropical diseases caused by parasitic protozoa of the Leishmania genus. Different stimuli induce Leishmania cell death, but the proteins involved remain poorly understood. Furthermore, confusion often appears between cell death and the cell survival process autophagy, whose phenotype is not clearly defined. In this article, we present a comprehensive and temporal analysis of the cellular events occurring during miltefosine-induced cell death and autophagy in L. major. We also provide a list of features in order to clearly identify apoptotic cells, autophagic cells and to distinguish both processes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that autophagy is followed by apoptosis in the absence of nutrients. Finally, we show that cells treated with the generic kinase inhibitor staurosporine express apoptotic as well as autophagic markers and therefore cannot be used as an apoptosis inducer in Leishmania. These descriptions lead to a better recognition and understanding of apoptosis and autophagy, enabling their targeting in the development of new anti-leishmanial drugs. These researches also make it possible to better understand these processes in general, through the study of an ancestral eukaryote.