News from the pathogen that causes sleeping sickness

06/20/2017 - A team of researchers from the University of Würzburg has discovered an interesting enzyme in the pathogens responsible for African sleeping sickness: It could be a promising target for drugs. The life-threatening African trypanosomiasis, also called sleeping sickness, is caused by protozoa of the species Trypanosoma brucei . A team at the Biocentre of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, studies the pathogens and has now reported exciting news: The trypanosomes have a so far unknown enzyme which does not exist in humans and other vertebrates. This makes it a promising target for therapy. Dr. Susanne Kramer and her team published the new findings in the journal PLOS Pathogens. "The enzyme is called TbALPH1," the researcher details. "It triggers the degradation of messenger RNA and is totally different from the enzymes responsible for this process in higher organisms." The JMU researcher counts the Trypanosoma enzyme among the class of ApaH-like phosphatases which are of bacterial origin.
account creation

TO READ THIS ARTICLE, CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT

And extend your reading, free of charge and with no commitment.

Register


Login

Your Benefits

  • Access to all content
  • Receive newsmails for news and jobs
  • Post ads

myScience