REVIEW Cysteine proteases in protozoan parasites Jair L. Siqueira-Neto1*, Anjan Debnath1, Laura-Isobel McCall1¤, Jean A. Bernatchez1, Momar Ndao2,3, Sharon L. Reed4, Philip J. Rosenthal5 1 Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America, 2 National Reference Centre for Parasitology, The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center, Montreal, Canada, 3 Program in Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health, The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 4 Departments of Pathology and Medicine, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, California, United States of America, 5 Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, a1111111111 United States of America a1111111111 a1111111111 ¤ Current address: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, a1111111111 United States of America a1111111111 *
[email protected] Abstract OPEN ACCESS Cysteine proteases (CPs) play key roles in the pathogenesis of protozoan parasites, includ- Citation: Siqueira-Neto JL, Debnath A, McCall L-I, ing cell/tissue penetration, hydrolysis of host or parasite proteins, autophagy, and evasion Bernatchez JA, Ndao M, Reed SL, et al. (2018) or modulation of the host immune response, making them attractive chemotherapeutic and Cysteine proteases in protozoan parasites. PLoS vaccine targets. This review highlights current knowledge on clan CA cysteine proteases, Negl Trop Dis 12(8): e0006512. https://doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pntd.0006512 the best-characterized group of cysteine proteases, from 7 protozoan organisms causing human diseases with significant impact: Entamoeba histolytica, Leishmania species (sp.), Editor: Photini Sinnis, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, UNITED STATES Trypanosoma brucei, T.