Studio dell'espressione di una Flavon Diiron Protein (FDP) in Giardia intestinalis

Giardia lamblia is a flagellated unicellular eukaryotic microorganism that commonly causes diarrheal disease throughout the world. Although <i>Giardia</i> has a poor tolerance to O₂, it preferentially colonizes the fairly aerobic upper part of the small intestine.<br/> The flavodiiron proteins (FDP) are widespread among strict or facultative anaerobic prokaryotes, where they are involved in the response to nitrosative and/or oxidative stress. The FDP from <i>Giardia</i> has high O₂-reductase activity but very low NO-reductase activity; O₂ reacts with the reduced protein quite rapidly and with high affinity producing H₂O.<br/> Experiments were designed to examine whether the FDP recombinant, stimulate the immune system of the host (mouse) producing specific antibodies. To verify if they specifically recognize the native protein in <i>Giardia</i>, the antibodies have been used to set up by blotting and fluorescence techniques.<br/> Experiments were performed under conditions of stress in order to obtain information on the location and expression of the native protein. I wanted to study the overexpression of the protein to determine its intracellular location and confirm the data obtained with not transformed cells.<br/> Further characterization experiments have led to study the protein expression during encystations and to evaluating the expression of FDP in metronidazoleresistant cells compared to drug sensitive protozoa.