BELGIAN SCIENTISTS DECIPHER THE MYSTERY OF SLEEPING SICKNESS

  Researchers at the Free University of Brussels managed to decipher the mystery of sleeping sickness, spread by the bite of the tsetse fly , annually killing tens of thousands of people , discovering how the parasite responsible 97PC of cases of the disease , protects the human immune response .
Scientists have also discovered a way to circumvent this defense and in vitro + kill + the parasite , the trypanosome, which threatens 70 million people in 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, according to findings published in the prestigious journal Nature .

A " road map " for considering a drug that might destroy the planet is underway.

  " The only varieties of the parasite that have managed to survive are those that have adapted by changing the context of the host they infect . Rights But this parasite ( the gambiense ) did not outright blocking poison, but protecting its targets and limiting its input. in the laboratory we were able to circumvent this defense of the parasite and to kill, " explains Professor Etienne Pays , the research team leader .

  Indeed, it was before impossible to fight effectively against the parasite that causes sleeping sickness without understanding how it manages to avoid the replica of the human body. But with this discovery, the fault is now found.

  Scientists from ULB have managed to develop a mutant variant ApoL1 protein , anti- trypanosome poison, which is able to kill the parasite , despite its defenses.

  But before using the killer protein as "medicine" , Professor Etienne Pays says he " must verify that this protein, if it is toxic to the parasite, not for the man and that n would not affect a vital function or does not result in significant side effects. Similarly , we must be sure that the rate obtained in human serum is high enough to be effective against the parasite not in the lab, but in real life parasite " .

  Meanwhile, researchers are on the verge of getting the creation of genetically modified mice that naturally produce this protein in their body, to see if they can actually remove the parasite.