African sleeping sickness: Loosely coiled DNA helps trypanosomes make their escape
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 23:21
in Biology & Nature
To escape the grip of the human immune system, Trypanosoma brucei, which causes African sleeping sickness, performs its acclaimed disappearing act. Every time the host's immune cells get close to eliminating the infection, a small number of trypanosomes avoid detection by changing their surface 'coat.' Now, after 30 years of contradictory and inconclusive findings, researchers reveal that trypanosomes' ability to strategically coil their DNA is part of the mechanism by which they make their stealthy escape.