Scientists from Helmholtz Zentrum Müchen together with colleagues from the Technical University of Much and Ruhr University Bochum have discovered the Achilles heel of the parasite that causes sleeping sickness. Along with this discovery is the development of a small molecule that selectively kills the pathogen that causes the said sickness.
According to Phys Org, determining the weakness of the parasite causing sleeping sickness yields the application of modern structural biology techniques to develop an inhibitor to kill the pathogen. The study involves several researchers; Dr. Michael Sattler, Dr. Grzegorz Popowicz, and Prof. Dr. Ralf Erdmansleen. The primary mechanism of the new approach concentrates on the PEX proteins, as stated by Sattler.
Trypanosomes are the causative agent of sleeping sickness. PEX proteins are essential in trypanosomes as it plays a crucial role in the function of so-called glycosomes. These glycosomes are small cell organelles that are important in maintaining the parasite's carbohydrate metabolism. The main idea is to inhibit the interaction between PEX14 and PEX5 in order to disrupt the trypanosome metabolism leading to death.
The researchers were able to utilize NMR- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in investigating the molecular structure of the two proteins. The next step was the core goal as the team determined a spatial structure that specifically binds to PEX14 preventing the interaction with PEX5 leading to the death of the parasite. These discoveries will be an advancement in the treatment of sleeping sickness.
As reported by World Health Organization (WHO), sleeping sickness occurs in 36 sub-Saharan Africa countries where prevalent tsetse flies transmit the disease. The sickness can also be referred to as human African trypanosomiasis. Trypanosomiasis is a vector-borne parasitic disease through tsetse fly bites which have acquired infection from infected human and animals.
Sleeping sickness takes two forms depending on the parasites involved whether "Trypanosoma brucei gambiense" and "Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense". Control efforts provided by the government have reduced the number of few cases. In the year 2009, the number reported reduced below 10,000 for the first time in 50 years and in the year 2015 wherein 2804 cases were reported.
