European scientists uncover source of rare disease

[kmariezw]

INFECTIOUS DISEASES
European scientists uncover source of rare disease


European-led project has uncovered the root cause of a rare illness triggered by parasites thought only to be present in cattle and camels.

Trypanosomiasis, the disease caused by parasitic trypanosomes, was believed only to exist in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South America. That changed, however, when researcher Philippe Truc from the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), working alongside medical experts from World Health Organisation and Maharashtra State Department of Health in

India, detected the disease in a farmer from a coastal region in India.

Parasites behind the recent case are similar to those behind African sleeping sickness which affects 60 million people.
© Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research

Trypanosomiasis is caused by the family of parasites responsible for African sleeping sickness and Chagas disease found in South America.

( OK, my comment --- now why are are blood banks testing/screening for Chagas here in the United States? Do they know something we don't ... like what we have is indeed in this Trypanosomiasis parasite family but altered? Possibly altered due to the Yale University experiement on Kissing bugs 9 or 10 years ago entering a gene in the insects intestine hoping it would make it impossible for the bugs to transmit the disease. The disease probably did mutate as the article states. WHERE ARE THE BUGS? Coincendently these BUGS BITE on people's FACES giving them the name. "KISSING" BUGS.) MY FIRST SYPMTOM WAS FACE BITING AND MY CHIN MOSTLY. THAT IS WHEN I KNEW FOR A FACT I DID NOT HAVE SCABIES. [/b]

Human infection by the parasite was hitherto unheard of in other regions of the world. The human immune system is normally able to effectively defend against the disease, making Dr Truc’s discovery of a new strain of the parasite cause for concern.

Due to the fact that an untold number of people live in close contact with infected animals, the possibility that the parasite had mutated making it capable of infecting humans was rather unsettling. Recently however, the combined efforts of IRD and Belgian researchers have traced the cause to a rare genetic anomaly in the patient, ruling out the possibility of a wider epidemic.

The naturally occurring human protein, apolipoprotein L-1 (APOL-1), when absorbed by the invading parasite, forms pores in the parasite’s organelles preventing it from taking hold. The specific parasites responsible for sleeping sickness and Chagas disease have developed a resistance to APOL-1 through the presence of a SRA (Serum Resistance-associated protein). This led experts to speculate the same had happened in the Indian variant of the parasite, later identified as T. evansi.

Scientists from the Université Libre de Bruxelles led by Professor Etienne Pays carried out blood serum tests taken from the patient to identify the forces at work behind the infection. They first introduced a normal serum into a mixture containing the parasite and found the parasite to be effectively neutralised by the APOL-1 protein. Once they established APOL-1 to be effective against T. evansi, they tested the patient’s blood samples for APOL-1. The patient’s samples were found to have 125 times less APOL-1 than normal human serum. Analysis of the APOL -1 gene sequence taken from the infected patient confirmed that he possessed a double mutation preventing him from producing the proper defences against the parasite.

Extensive testing of the farmer’s village by Indian health authorities, again supported by IRD and WHO, found an extremely high prevalence of the parasite, though genetic testing for the double mutation at the root of the infection has yet to be carried out on the villagers.

[Franky]

Thank you for the interesting post there. It makes me wonder what percent we (USA) get new disease's from third world nations. Also what percent is it in the pure form as opposed to mutated strains.