Research Finds Possible New Way to Attack Sleeping Sickness
Scientists discover previously unknown part of parasite lifecycle
17 December 2010
African sleeping sickness affects mostly rural people in 36 sub-Saharan countries. The World Health Organization says there are currently an estimated 30,000 cases. Left untreated, it is fatal.
Sleeping sickness is caused by a parasite that is transmitted to humans by the tsetse fly. The parasite is a one-cell protozoa like ones you might have seen under a classroom microscope, floating around in fluid.
"But it turns out that, under the right conditions, they can actually transition to a multi-cellular form," says Kent Hill, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Microbiology. "And in that form there's groups of cells that can sense their environment, that can communicate with one another, and that can engage in coordinate activities."
Hill and his colleagues used an artificial material in the lab to simulate a surface like the tissue inside an infected person. They found that the parasites gathered together in groups on these lab surfaces.
"And that is when we discovered that they change from acting as individual organisms, where they'd come together as these little groups, and then the little groups would actually send out parasites to look for more parasites and make the group bigger."
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