Summary:
- Researchers have discovered how the parasite that causes sleeping sickness is able to evade the human immune system.
- The parasite, called Trypanosoma brucei, has the ability to rapidly change the proteins on its surface, called variant surface glycoproteins (VSGs), to avoid being detected and attacked by the body's immune cells.
- This new understanding of the parasite's immune evasion strategy could lead to the development of more effective treatments for sleeping sickness, a debilitating and potentially fatal disease found in parts of Africa.