Describe how C. parvum obtains the glucose it needs for glycolysis after it has infected another cell. Explain the role of lactate dehydrogenase in enabling C. parvum to continue producing ATP by glycolysis.

Cryptosporidium parvum is a protist, one of many species that cause cryptosporidiosis. The infection causes acute, watery, non-bloody diarrhea in immunocompromised patients. In HIV infections, it can cause watery diarrhea, which can be associated with anorexia, nausea / vomiting, and also abdominal pain.

Cryptosporidium parvum has neither catalase nor peroxidase, as well as glutation-dependent enzymes. On the contrary, it has an iron-dependent superoxide dismutase activity. The study of the glycolytic pathway reveals as differentiating characteristics the absence of hexokinase activity, the presence of pyrophosphate-dependent phosphofructokinase activity and a complete cycle of co2 fixation. No mitochondrial activity could be detected. The absence of hexokinase activity implies that the sporozoite depends on the amylopectin reserves previously synthesized during the macrogamete phase. All enzymes are located in the cytoplasm, there is no evidence of the existence of metabolically active compartments with respect to glycolysis.

Explanation:

Cryptosporidium has a spore phase and in this state can survive for long periods outside of the host. It is a good external survival mechanism and can also resist many common disinfectants, especially specific disinfectants in chlorine or sodium hypochlorite. Due to this resistance, the treatment of water to eliminate Cryptosporidium in general is based on the immediate coagulation of the filtration or boiling, exceeding one hundred degrees Celsius for a long period of time. In mid-2007 it was discovered that Cryptosporidium is sensitive to ultraviolet light and ozonation, having already installed tales of water treatment systems in cities where they have had problems with the presence of the parasite.

Most treatment plants that draw water from rivers, lakes and reservoirs for the production of public drinking water use specific filtering technologies. This involves a number of processes including coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, and filtration.