title: New approaches to the microscopic imaging of Trypanosoma brucei.
abstract: Protozoan parasites are fearsome pathogens responsible for a substantial proportion of human mortality, morbidity, and economic hardship. The principal disease agents are members of the orders Apicomplexa (Plasmodium, Toxoplasma, Eimeria) and Kinetoplastida (Trypanosomes, Leishmania). The majority of humans are at risk from infection from one or more of these organisms, with profound effects on the economy, social structure and quality of life in endemic areas; Plasmodium itself accounts for over one million deaths per annum, and an estimated 4 x 10(7) disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), whereas the Kinetoplastida are responsible for over 100,000 deaths per annum and 4 x 10(6) DALYs. Current control strategies are failing due to drug resistance and inadequate implementation of existing public health strategies. Trypanosoma brucei, the African Trypanosome, has emerged as a favored model system for the study of basic cell biology in Kinetoplastida, because of several recent technical advances (transfection, inducible expression systems, and RNA interference), and these advantages, together with genome sequencing efforts are widely anticipated to provide new strategies of therapeutic intervention. Here we describe a suite of methods that have been developed for the microscopic analysis of T. brucei at the light and ultrastructural levels, an essential component of analysis of gene function and hence identification of therapeutic targets.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Laboratories for Molecular Parasitology, Department of Biological Sciences, Imperial College, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AY, UK. mfield@ic.ac.uk
authors.forename: Mark C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Field
authors.forename: Clare L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Vivek
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dhir
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Goulding
authors.forename: Belinda S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: Gareth W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Veazey
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Engstler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000378:metabolism; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission / Q000379:methods; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D014346:Trypanosoma brucei brucei / Q000648:ultrastructure*
chemical_list: D000953:Antigens, Protozoan