Assessing the impact of ABCA1 and ABCG1 expression on T. brucei infection

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Trypanosoma brucei is a kinetoplastid parasite that causes African trypanosomiasis disease in humans. African trypanosomiasis, also known as African sleeping sickness, is considered a neglected tropical disease. If left untreated, African sleeping sickness is 100% fatal. Treatments for African sleeping sickness are notorious for causing adverse effects in patients and some of the side effects can result in patient death. The transporters ABCA1 and ABCG1 function to remove intracellular cholesterol via participating in cholesterol efflux, resulting in the disruption of lipid-rafts. This process is anti-inflammatory, since activated toll-like receptors need to first translocate into lipid-rafts to trigger a pro-inflammatory immune response. Therefore, manipulating expression of ABCA1 and/or ABCG1 may influence parasite pathologenicity and virulence through modulating toll-like receptor-mediated activation upon T. brucei infection.