Highlighted By: Samuel Dean, University of Warwick, Warwick Medical School, Department of Biomedical Sciences
Preprint DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.10.536298
This preprint has been assigned the following Badges:
Significance Statement:
- Although most studies investigating the pathology of African trypanosomes, an extracellular protozoan parasite, have focused on parasites resident in the blood, their presence in other tissues has garnered increasing attention.
- Using intravital microcopy and ex vivo imaging in mice, parasites were found to cause significant alterations in the nodes and lymphatic vasculature. Lymphatic parasites were characterized to be larger and faster than blood-resident parasites and have a lower proportion of the transmissible “stumpy” form. Blocking a surface receptor of lymphatic vessel endothelial cells caused lower blood parasitemia and prolonged mouse survival, potentially supporting a role for the lymph nodes in pathogenicity.
- Understanding the lymph-node resident parasites and the role of lymph nodes in trypanosome infection could improve the understanding of host-parasite interactions and trypanosomiasis pathology.
Read the Preprint:
The lymphatic system favours survival of a unique T. brucei population, and its invasion results in major host pathology
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