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Drug discovery

Fat-free proteins kill parasites

Nature volume 464, pages 689–690 (2010)Cite this article

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The addition of a fatty acid to certain proteins is vital for the survival of protozoa that cause sleeping sickness and of their mammalian hosts. Compounds that target this process in the protozoa are now reported.

The T. brucei parasite is a small, unicellular organism with many biological similarities to its human host cells, but which has taken different routes in the evolution of certain critical cellular pathways. It also has some unique cellular pathways. There is therefore widespread optimism that it should be possible to develop treatments for HAT by identifying drug targets that are specific to the organism — assuming that the financial resources are available. What's more, T. brucei lives outside its host's cells (unlike its distant cousins Trypanosoma cruzi and the many varieties of Leishmania), which should facilitate drug development. The human immune system cannot eradicate T. brucei because the parasite has developed an apparently insurmountable capacity for antigenic variation. This allows HAT infections to persist until (usually) the death of the infected person, following the coma that occurs once the parasite invades the patient's brain.

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Figure 1: A forgotten disease.

EYE OF SCIENCE/SPL; A. CRUMP, TDR, WHO/SPL

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  1. George A. M. Cross is at The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10065-6399, USA. george.cross@rockefeller.edu ,

    George A. M. Cross

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  1. George A. M. Cross
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Cross, G. Fat-free proteins kill parasites. Nature 464, 689–690 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/464689a

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