Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2022, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (10): 3345-3357.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2022.10.008

• REVIEW • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Research Progress on Biological Functions of Dense Granule Proteins of Toxoplasma gondii

ZHENG Xiaonan1,2, LI Tingting2*, WANG Jinlei2,3, ZHENG Wenbin1, ZHU Xingquan1,4*   

  1. 1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu 030801, China;
    2. State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730046, China;
    3. Wenzhou Key Laboratory of Sanitary Microbiology, Key Laboratory of Laboratory Medicine, Ministry of Education, School of Laboratory Medicine and Life Sciences, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China;
    4. Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health of Higher Education of Yunnan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China
  • Received:2022-03-01 Online:2022-10-23 Published:2022-10-26

Abstract: Toxoplasma gondii is an important zoonotic parasite with a wide range of intermediate hosts, complex life history, diverse modes of transmission and global distribution, which can infect almost all warm-blood animals, including humans, causing zoonotic toxoplasmosis. About one third of the world human population are chronically infected with T. gondii, which poses a serious health threat to immune deficiency patients, pregnant women and pregnant animals. Therefore, T. gondii is an important zoonotic parasite. Dense granule protein family secreted by the dense granules, one of the important subcellular secretory organelles of T. gondii, plays important roles in many biological processes, such as regulating the host cell cycle and immune response by modulating the signal pathways, gene expression, participating in the protein transport and localization, nutrient uptake, the formation and stability maintenance of intravacuolar network (IVN), as well as egress and chronic infection of T. gondii. In this review, the basic biological functions of the dense granule proteins are summarized in order to provide new research ideas for the pathogenesis of T. gondii, the discovery of potential drug targets against T. gondii and the development of anti-T. gondii vaccines.

Key words: Toxoplasma gondii, toxoplasmosis, dense granule proteins, biological function

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