The first disease to have its proteins discovered and mapped within its cells, providing clues to their function and aiding in the identification of new treatment targets, is a parasite that has severe effects on agricultural and human health.
African trypanosomes are parasites spread by tsetse flies that cause sleeping sickness in people, which manifests as fever, anemia, and, in severe cases, death, as well as nagana, a disease that affects cattle in a manner that is similar to that of humans. These parasites have made large areas of Africa unsuitable for livestock production, costing rural farmers up to ~3.7 billion pounds each year in lost revenue.
There are two species of African trypanosomes that cause sleeping sickness: Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. T. brucei gambiense causes a chronic form of the disease, which can last for years, while T. brucei rhodesiense causes an acute form of the disease, which can progress rapidly and be fatal within months.
The first ever “protein atlas” of a pathogen, a form of biological map that shows where proteins are located in cells, has been created by scientists. They carried out the study on Trypanosoma brucei (T. brucei), assisting in determining the locations of proteins within its cells and offering functional insights that may eventually aid in the treatment of parasite infections.
The benefits of this ground-breaking research by the Universities of Warwick, Oxford and Oxford Brookes do not stop there. In mapping the proteins within T. brucei, scientists now understand more about its evolutionary cell biology.
This is a very important work, and a powerful resource that will be useful to many researchers including African scientists that work on the devastating African trypanosomiasis, thus contributing to a better understanding of the parasite biology.
Theresa Manful Gwira
Like humans, T. brucei are eukaryotes meaning their cells have a nucleus. However, T. brucei evolved in a very divergent way to human cells. Exploring protein mapping sheds light on how it evolved to be so different.
Samuel Dean, Assistant Professor of parasitology at the University of Warwick, said, “In this study, we genetically modified trypanosome parasites to make proteins attached to a green fluorescent dye. This helped to show exactly where its proteins are within the cell. Using this information, we are able to understand more about what these proteins might be doing. Up until now 50% of the proteins in T. brucei had unknown functions.”
“This has significant impacts on our understanding of pathogen evolution and provides functional clues for thousands of otherwise uncharacterized proteins. This will help further investigations and may help to inform on new treatments for these terrible diseases.”
Professor Keith Matthews, expert in parasite biology at the University of Edinburgh, added, “This important resource will be of immense long-term value to researchers focused on these devastating pathogens, but also helps to understand the protein function and evolution of all nucleated cells, including our own.”
University of Ghana senior lecturer, Theresa Manful Gwira, who is Head of Research Training at the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, added, “This is a very important work, and a powerful resource that will be useful to many researchers including African scientists that work on the devastating African trypanosomiasis, thus contributing to a better understanding of the parasite biology.”
