Flagellar motility is required for the viability of the bloodstream trypanosome

Richard Broadhead, Helen R. Dawe, Helen Farr, Samantha Griffiths, Sarah R. Hart, Neil Portman, Michael K. Shaw, Michael L. Ginger, Simon J. Gaskell, Paul G. McKean and Keith Gull ()
Additional contact information
Richard Broadhead: Lancaster University
Helen R. Dawe: University of Oxford
Helen Farr: University of Oxford
Samantha Griffiths: University of Oxford
Sarah R. Hart: University of Manchester
Neil Portman: University of Oxford
Michael K. Shaw: University of Oxford
Michael L. Ginger: University of Oxford
Simon J. Gaskell: University of Manchester
Paul G. McKean: Lancaster University
Keith Gull: University of Oxford

Nature, 2006, vol. 440, issue 7081, 224-227

Abstract: Point of attack There is little hope for a vaccine for African sleeping sickness, and most of the drugs currently used to treat it are old, not particularly effective and difficult to use in the conditions that prevail in sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease is endemic. So the discovery of a new class of molecule that might be targeted by drug intervention could be an important boost to the field. The sleeping sickness parasite Trypanosoma brucei is a protozoon equipped with a whip-like flagellum. RNA interference (RNAi) knock-down experiments show that a functioning flagellum is essential for Trypanosoma's survival in the bloodstream. That makes the flagellum a possible point of therapeutic attack, and proteomic analysis points to a number of trypanosome-specific flagellar proteins that could be targeted. On the cover, monstrous cells of bloodstream-form trypanosomes formed by a failure of cell division in cells with defective flagella.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04541

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