The article "Sleeping Sickness Parasite has a weak spot in its tail” by Catherine Brahic, is a very brief summary about a parasite,Trypanosoma brucei, passed to humans from the tsetse fly. The sleeping sickness is responsible for 50,000 deaths a year in Africa. Brahic states that they have discovered that the parasite cannot reproduce if its whip-like tail or "flagellum" stops working. Although they are still unsure, as to why the flagellum exists. Keith Gull of Oxford University has a theory, that it assists the parasite to split in two when multiplying in the bloodstream. Brahic explains that these findings have opened the doors for more drug development. She stated that the current available drugs are out dated, and cause terrible side effects. Researchers have identified 330 proteins that make up the flagellum; they selected five and made them inactive. By making them inactive, the cells cannot pull apart as they divide, while leaving the human cells unaffected.
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(Brahic, 2006) Also stated, "If you could design a small molecule that blocked the function of the flagellum, it would be likely to have an effect on the parasite," (Brahic, 2006) but Brahic never mentioned any results from this theory. She left many things up in the air about whether or not more was being done, or if anything was
(Brahic, 2006) Also stated, "If you could design a small molecule that blocked the function of the flagellum, it would be likely to have an effect on the parasite," (Brahic, 2006) but Brahic never mentioned any results from this theory. She left many things up in the air about whether or not more was being done, or if anything was