How does the parasite that causes sleeping sickness invade tissues?

Luísa Figueiredo

Gulbenkian Instituto de Medicina Molecular (GiMM), Lisboa, Portugal

Trypanosoma brucei is a single-celled parasite transmitted to humans by the bite of tsetse flies and causes the so-called sleeping sickness. The disease is endemic in sub-Saharan African countries and is usually lethal without treatment. Trypanosoma is able to cross blood vessels and invade multiple organs, such as adipose tissue or the brain, where it hides and creates reservoirs, making the disease difficult to diagnose and contributing to possible relapses. Understanding how the parasite crosses blood vessels to establish tissue reservoirs is crucial for effective disease control.

To invade and colonise organs, Trypanosoma interacts closely with endothelial cells, which line the inside of blood vessels. Deciphering this molecular dialogue would pave the way for therapeutic interventions that could alleviate the impact of this devastating disease. This project aims to identify the genes of the parasite that enable it to cross blood vessels, understand the changes that occur in the vessels during infection and identify step-by-step the process by which the parasite crosses them.

The knowledge gained during this study will open the door to new treatment strategies for sleeping sickness as well as for other pathologies that might use similar mechanisms, such as cancer metastasis or inflammation.

• Cláudio A. Franco, Católica Biomedical Research Centre, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon, Portugal

Decoding trypanosome interactions with the host vasculature

€998,850.00