Trypanosoma brucei

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Trypanosoma brucei is a species of parasitic kinetoplastid belonging to the genus Trypanosoma that is present in sub-Saharan Africa. Unlike other protozoan parasites that normally infect blood and tissue cells, it is exclusively extracellular and inhabits the blood plasma and body fluids. It causes deadly vector-borne diseases: African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness in humans, and animal trypanosomiasis or nagana in cattle and horses. It is a species complex grouped into five subspecies: T. b. brucei, T. b. equiperdum, T. b. evansi, T. b. gambiense and T. b. rhodesiense. T. brucei is transmitted between mammal hosts by insect vectors belonging to the Glossina genus (tsetse flies). Transmission occurs by biting during the insect's blood meal. The parasites undergo complex morphological changes as they move between insect and mammal over the course of their life cycle. The mammalian bloodstream forms are notable for their cell surface proteins, variant surface glycoproteins, which undergo...

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