The interaction of arsenical drugs with dihydrolipoamide and dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase from arsenical resistant and sensitive strains of Trypanosoma brucei brucei

Alan H. Fairlamb, Keith Smith, Karl J. Hunter

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    37 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    d,l-dihydrolipoamide and d,l-dihydrolipoic acid react to form stable complexes with melarsen oxide with association constants of 5.47 × 109 and 4.51 × 109 M-1, respectively. These complexes possess 6-membered cyclic dithioarsenite rings which are 10-fold less stable than the 5-membered rings found in the trypanocidal drugs melarsoprol and trimelarsen, but 500-fold more stable than the 25-membered macrocyclic ring formed between melarsen oxide and dihydrotrypanothione. l-Lipoic acid concentrations in arsenical sensitive and resistant cloned lines of Trypanosoma brucei brucei have been determined by bioassay using a mutant of Escherichia coli auxotrophic for lipoate. The arsenical resistant strain was found to contain significantly less lipoic acid than the sensitive strain (19.2 ± 4.3 and 9.7 ± 2.9 pmol (108 cells)-1, respectively). The activity of the plasma membrane-associated dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase was found to be slightly, but significantly increased in the arsenical resistant strain (34.7 ± 1.4 and 47.8 ± 3.7 mU mg-1, respectively). However, the Km for dihydrolipoamide and the inactivation kinetics with melarsen oxide were not significantly different between these strains. Estimates of the ratio of substrate to enzyme are of the order of 12:1 and 6:1 for arsenical sensitive and resistant strains, respectively, suggesting that these components are likely to be intimately associated with each other in the plasma membrane. These findings implicate lipoic acid, but not dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase, in resistance to arsenical drugs, either through the mechanism of uptake or as the final target of these drugs.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)223-231
    Number of pages9
    JournalMolecular and Biochemical Parasitology
    Volume53
    Issue number1-2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jul 1992

    Keywords

    • Arsenical drugs
    • Dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase
    • Drug effects
    • Drug resistance
    • Lipoic acid
    • Trypanosoma brucei brucei

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Parasitology
    • Molecular Biology

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