The bis(glutathionyl)spermidine trypanothione exclusively occurs in parasitic protozoa of the order Kinetoplastida, such as trypanosomes and leishmania, some of which are the causative agents of several tropical diseases. The dithiol is kept reduced by the flavoenzyme trypanothione reductase and the trypanothione system replaces in these parasites the nearly ubiquitous glutathione/glutathione reductase couple. Trypanothione is a reductant of thioredoxin and tryparedoxin, small dithiol proteins, which in turn deliver reducing equivalents for the synthesis of deoxyribonucleotides as well as for the detoxification of hydroperoxides by different peroxidases. Depending on the individual organism and the developmental state, the parasites also contain significant amounts of glutathione, mono-glutathionylspermidine and ovothiol, whereby all four low molecular mass thiols are directly (trypanothione and mono-glutathionylspermidine) or indirectly (glutathione and ovothiol) maintained in the reduced state by trypanothione reductase. Thus the trypanothione system is central for any thiol regeneration and trypanothione reductase has been shown to be an essential enzyme in these parasites. The absence of this pathway from the mammalian host and the sensitivity of trypanosomatids toward oxidative stress render the enzymes of the trypanothione metabolism attractive target molecules for the rational development of new drugs against African sleeping sickness, Chagas' disease and the different forms of leishmaniasis.

Trypanosomes and Leishmania, the causative agents of several tropical diseases, lack the glutathione/glutathione reductase system but have trypanothione/ trypanothione reductase instead. The uniqueness of this thiol metabolism and the failure to detect thioredoxin reductases in these parasites have led to the suggestion that these protozoa lack a thioredoxin system. As presented here, this is not the case. A gene encoding thioredoxin has been cloned from Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African sleeping sickness. The single copy gene, which encodes a protein of 107 amino acid residues, is expressed in all developmental stages of the parasite. The deduced protein sequence is 56% identical with a putative thioredoxin revealed by the genome project of Leishmania major. The relationship to other thioredoxins is low. T. brucei thioredoxin is unusual in having a calculated pI value of 8.5. The gene has been overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant protein is a substrate of human thioredoxin reductase with a K m value of 6 M but is not reduced by trypanothione reductase. T. brucei thioredoxin catalyzes the reduction of insulin by dithioerythritol, and functions as an electron donor for T. brucei ribonucleotide reductase. The parasite protein is the first classical thioredoxin of the order Kinetoplastida characterized so far.

Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African sleeping sickness, possesses a single thioredoxin that has an unusually high pI value of 8.5 and lacks a conserved aspartyl residue claimed to be involved in catalysis in other thioredoxins. Despite these peculiarities, T. brucei thioredoxin behaves like classical thioredoxins. It is reduced by thioredoxin reductases from different species, serves as donor of reducing equivalents for the ribonucleotide reductase of the parasite, and catalyzes the reduction of protein disulfides. The redox potential of ؊267 mV was obtained from protein-protein redox equilibration with Escherichia coli thioredoxin. The pK value of T. brucei thioredoxin was determined by two different methods. Carboxamidomethylation of the reduced protein yielded a pK value of 7.4 and generated mono-alkylated protein. The thiolate absorption at 240 nm resulted in a pK of 7.6 and, based on the extinction coefficient of 11.6 mM ؊1 cm ؊1 , there are two (or three) cysteines titrating with very similar pK values. A thioredoxin reductase has not yet been detected in any organism of the order Kinetoplastida. T. brucei thioredoxin is spontaneously reduced by trypanothione (bis(glutathionyl)spermidine). Obviously, a specific thioredoxin reductase is not required as thioredoxin reduction can be conducted by the parasite-specific trypanothione/ trypanothione reductase system. Trypanosomatids such as Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African sleeping sickness, have a unique thiol metabolism in which the ubiquitous glutathione/glutathione reductase couple is replaced by trypanothione (N 1 ,N 8 -bis(glutathionyl)spermidine), and the flavoenzyme trypanothione reductase (1, 2). The parasite dithiol is much more reactive than glutathione. It is a spontaneous reductant of dehydroascorbate as well as the disulfide forms of glutathione and ovothiol (2). It reduces tryparedoxin, a 16-kDa dithiol protein with a CPPC active site motif, which distantly belongs to the thioredoxin protein family (3). The trypanothione/tryparedoxin couple is the donor of reducing equivalents for the detoxication of hydroperoxides catalyzed by a cascade of proteins that are composed of trypanothione reductase, trypanothione, tryparedoxin, and a peroxiredoxin-type tryparedoxin peroxidase. Tryparedoxin is also involved in the reduction of ribonucleotide reductase (4) and glutathione peroxidase-like parasite peroxidases (5, 6). The trypanothione metabolism is essential for the parasite. Down-regulation of trypanothione reductase in bloodstream T. brucei by more than 90% results in growth arrest and hypersensitivity toward hydrogen peroxide as well as the loss of infectivity in a mouse model (7).Besides tryparedoxin, T. brucei possesses a single classical thioredoxin with a M r of 12,000 and the conserved WCGPC catalytic site (8). The parasite protein is unusual in having a calculated pI value of 8.5 instead of the acidic pI found for most thioredoxins and a conserved functional aspartate (Asp-26 in Escherichia coli thioredoxin) (9, 10)...

The three-dimensional structure of thioredoxin from Trypanosoma brucei brucei has been determined at 1.4 A î resolution. The overall structure is more similar to that of human thioredoxin than to any other thioredoxin structure. The most striking di¡erence to other thioredoxins is the absence of a buried carboxylate behind the active site cysteines. Instead of the common Asp, there is a Trp that binds an ordered water molecule probably involved in the protonation/deprotonation of the more buried cysteine during catalysis. The conserved Trp in the WCGPC sequence motif has an exposed position that can interact with target proteins.

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