Bordier 1981 [50] first described the suitability of the detergent Triton X-114 (TX-114) therefore to concentrate hydrophobic proteins due to its nearly physiological clouding point temperature. At temperatures above 23��C a formerly homogenous solution containing the detergent TX-114 will split into two phases: an upper layer depleted of detergent (hydrophilic) and a lower phase enriched in detergent’s micelles (hydrophobic). Using this physical property, Cordero et al., 2009, [51] concentrated the GPI-anchored proteins of metacyclic and epimastigotes of T. cruzi after several consecutive partitions in TX-114. Mass spectrometry analyses on those fractions detected several members of TS superfamily, among those, the surface glycoprotein GP82 had 22% of its sequence covered by tryptic peptides.
Among those peptides, the Asp boxes, VTV, and cell binding site P8 were mapped [51]. Other important region mapped in this study was peptide P7, which was identified as the binding site for the gastric mucin [44]. Several proteomics studies have been conducted in metacyclic forms of T. cruzi, but to the best of our knowledge, there is only one additional report of GP82 elsewhere [52]. Recently, a quantitative proteomic study was performed in parasites undergoing metacyclogenesis [53]. Among the proteins identified in this study, authors found 38 members of TS superfamily. Due to lack of a unified/standardized annotation among the databases and the absence of the peptide sequences used in this study, it was not possible to determine the presence of GP82 among them.
Some of those annotated TSs shared a high degree of identity with GP82 protein, but because of the missing peptide sequences it is impossible to assign an unambiguous classification. The lack of a common nonredundant annotation represents an issue that must be taken in consideration with an urge to amend.Recently, Cortez et al., 2012, [54] compiled all the biochemical, physicochemical, and functional information available on GP82 in order to create the most updated model of the protein structure. The authors based this model on the homology of T. cruzi GP82 (GenBank: “type”:”entrez-nucleotide”,”attrs”:”text”:”L14824″,”term_id”:”295358″,”term_text”:”L14824″L14824) with T. rangeli sialidase (PDB 1N1T_A), a close related molecule which had its crystallographic structure (inhibitor-bound) already solved. The sketched GP82 appears as two clearly different and separated domains (an amino-terminal ��-propeller and a ��-sandwich C-terminal domain) linked together by an ��-helix. In this layout, P3, P4, P7, and P8 motifs have a variable degree of access to the solvent. The cell-binding peptide P4 encompasses 2/3 of the ��-helix that bridges the protein AV-951 together and is fully exposed.