• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Sunday, August 24, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Disease-causing nibbling amoeba hides by displaying proteins from host cells

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
April 30, 2019
in Health
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

IMAGE

Credit: Hannah Miller/UC Davis

A parasitic amoeba that causes severe gut disease in humans protects itself from attack by biting off pieces of host cells and putting their proteins on its own surface, according to a study by microbiologists at the University of California, Davis.

“We’re very excited about how this ties into amoebic infection and into broader themes in cell biology,” said Katherine Ralston, assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, College of Biological Sciences. A paper describing the work appears today (April 30) in the journal mBio.

Entamoeba histolytica causes severe diarrheal disease, mainly in tropical countries. It lives in the gut, causing ulcers and bleeding. In severe cases it can break out and invade other organs.

Ralston studied Entamoeba during postdoctoral work at the University of Virginia. Amoebae and many other cells — including some that protect us from disease — are known to “eat” other cells by engulfing them completely, a process called phagocytosis.

Ralston discovered that Entamoeba could also pinch off small pieces of human cells. She called this process trogocytosis or “cell nibbling.”

“The amoeba quite literally takes bites out of other cells,” Ralston said. “This nibbling is how it attacks individual cells, and we think this is how it causes ulceration and damage to the human intestine.”

Cell nibbling has also been described in other parasitic amoebae — and also in multicellular organisms. Immune system cells, for example, can swap pieces of their surface with each other by biting them off.

“We thought that if amoebae can take proteins from host cells and put them on their own surface this would have a functional effect on how they survive in the body,” said graduate student Hannah Miller.

Camouflage from complement

The body produces a set of proteins in the blood, called “complement,” that can attack parasites and bacteria. Your own cells carry proteins that prevent them from being attacked by complement.

Miller, Ralston and Rene Suleiman, another graduate student in the lab, found that when the amoebae were put in contact with human cells, they could take these protective proteins and put them on as a sort of “complement camouflage.” Regular Entamoebae were killed by human serum, but amoebae that had camouflaged themselves survived.

This camouflage could protect them from complement as they migrate through the blood around the body, Miller said.

Miller and Ralston are now working to understand which proteins are transferred, how they interact with complement and what happens to these proteins after they are nibbled off another cell. Do they go straight into the amoeba’s membrane, or are they processed internally first?

They also want to know more about trogocytosis in general. Why are some cases benign, but others lead to cell death? The process may also be important for understanding behavior of cancer cells and how they can be killed.

“We’re really excited that this decoration with acquired proteins might apply to trogocytosis in general, because we’re realizing that it’s important in so many contexts,” Ralston said.

###

The work was supported by a scholarship from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Media Contact
Andy Fell
[email protected]

Original Source

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/disease-causing-nibbling-amoeba-hides-displaying-proteins-host-cells

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00068-19

Tags: BiologyCell BiologyDisease in the Developing WorldImmunology/Allergies/AsthmaInfectious/Emerging DiseasesMicrobiologyParasitology
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Triglyceride-Glucose and Waist Circumference: Diabetes Risk Insights

August 24, 2025
blank

Body-Positive Social Media’s Influence on Body Image

August 24, 2025

Future Innovations in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine

August 24, 2025

Challenges and Supports for Universal Health Coverage in Uganda

August 24, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Molecules in Focus: Capturing the Timeless Dance of Particles

    141 shares
    Share 56 Tweet 35
  • New Drug Formulation Transforms Intravenous Treatments into Rapid Injections

    114 shares
    Share 46 Tweet 29
  • Breakthrough in Computer Hardware Advances Solves Complex Optimization Challenges

    83 shares
    Share 33 Tweet 21
  • Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed

    81 shares
    Share 32 Tweet 20

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Exploring Tadpole Buccopharyngeal Morphology in Sphaenorhynchini

Triglyceride-Glucose and Waist Circumference: Diabetes Risk Insights

Cinnamon Extracts: Impact on Musca domestica Responses

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.