title: Imaging African trypanosomes.
abstract: Trypanosoma brucei are extracellular kinetoplastid parasites transmitted by the blood-sucking tsetse fly. They are responsible for the fatal disease human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness. In late-stage infection, trypanosomes cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and invade the central nervous system (CNS) invariably leading to coma and death if untreated. There is no available vaccine and current late-stage HAT chemotherapy consists of either melarsoprol, which is highly toxic causing up to 8% of deaths, or nifurtimox-eflornithine combination therapy (NECT), which is costly and difficult to administer. There is therefore an urgent need to identify new late-stage HAT drug candidates. Here, we review how current imaging tools, ranging from fluorescent confocal microscopy of live immobilized cells in culture to whole-animal imaging, are providing insight into T. brucei biology, parasite-host interplay, trypanosome CNS invasion and disease progression. We also consider how imaging tools can be used for candidate drug screening purposes that could lead to new chemotherapies.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Immunology and Infection, Department of Biology/Hull York Medical School, University of York, Heslington, York, UK. l.m.maclean@dundee.ac.uk
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: MacLean
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Myburgh
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rodgers
authors.forename: H P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Price
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002470:Cell Survival; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D006801:Humans; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal / Q000379:methods*; D014346:Trypanosoma brucei brucei / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology; D014353:Trypanosomiasis, African / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000473:pathology
keywords: RNA interference; Trypanosoma spp; animal model; electron microscopy; in vivo imaging; tools and techniques