Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Regulation Of Antigenic Variation In Trypanosoma Brucei, Imaan A. Benmerzouga
Regulation Of Antigenic Variation In Trypanosoma Brucei, Imaan A. Benmerzouga
ETD Archive
Trypanosoma brucei is a protozoan parasite that causes sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in cattle. When inside the mammalian host, T. brucei cells stay in extracellular spaces and regularly switch their surface antigen, Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG), to escape the host's immune responses. To ensure the effectiveness of VSG switching, T. brucei expresses a single type of VSG at any time exclusively from one of 20 identical VSG expression sites located next to the telomere. Monoallelic expression of VSG and VSG switching are important for T. brucei's pathogenesis. Our major goal is to understand the mechanisms of antigenic variation …
Bioinformatic Analysis And In Vitro Expression Of Malaria Parasite Translocon And Ribonuclease Binding-Like Rhoptry Genes, Moses Z. Timta
Bioinformatic Analysis And In Vitro Expression Of Malaria Parasite Translocon And Ribonuclease Binding-Like Rhoptry Genes, Moses Z. Timta
ETD Archive
Malaria caused by the parasite Plasmodium, still remains a significant public health problem worldwide, due to lack of a vaccine and emerging drug and insecticide resistance, among malaria parasites and mosquito vectors, respectively. Rhoptry proteins of Plasmodium enable merozoite invasion of host erythrocytes. However, only a few of these proteins have been characterized. Thirty-six P. yoelii merozoite rhoptry proteins were identified as putative rhoptry proteins by proteome analysis. Some of these proteins have been characterized while others still remain an intense area of active research. Molecular characterization and understanding of these novel proteins may assist in vaccine development, design of …