To survive, a parasite mixes and matches its disguises, study suggests

A detailed look at the African sleeping sickness parasite’s strategy for evading its hosts’ immune systems revealed that the blood parasites assume a surprising diversity of protein coat disguises. In fact, the number of disguises necessary to maintain a long-term infection appears to exceed the functional genes that encode them. More »
Source: The Rockefeller University Newswire - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Tags: Science News antigenic variation F. Nina Papavasiliou George Cross Laboratory of Lymphocyte Biology Monical Mugnier parasitic infection sleeping sickness Trypanosoma brucei VSG Source Type: news