Anticancer activity of the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi

The incidence of cancer among people is increasing worldwide. Modern methods make it possible to cure cancer patients in the early stages of the disease, but they do not help patients with metastases to other organs. Therefore, the synthesis of new medicine and the search for natural drugs to stop the progression of malignant tumors is very relevant. Back in 1929, Soviet scientists showed that crucin (frozen/thawed T. cruzi epimastig-otes) had antitumor and antimetastatic activity.

The review is devoted to modern views on the nature of this phenomenon. It turned out that the interaction of the parasite, host and cancer cells includes a number of mechanisms depending on the type of tumor, virulence and other characteristics of a particular strain of T. cruzi, the immunogenicity of parasites or their lysate, op-tions for stimulating the immune response, as well as the presence of proteins or enzymes that ensure selective invasion and destruction of abnormal cells by trypanosomes. According to the assumption, some glycoproteins of the surface membrane of metacyclic trypomastigotes, such as Gp82, can lower the level of autophagy of met-astatic cells and lead to their death. And the unique enzyme of the parasite trans-sialidase and its surface mucins are able to reduce the sialylation of tumor cells, which become available to T-lymphocytes and natural killer cells (NK) that destroy metastases.

Future research should aim to achieve a more accurate understanding of the active molecular and cellular mechanisms of the effect of T. cruzi lysates on cancer cells. Their goal is to use the antitumor potential of crucin in innovative therapy of cancer patients with distal metastases.

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