Scientists in the United Kingdom and Russia are reporting
identification of a long-sought chink in the armor of the
parasite that causes African sleeping sickness, a parasitic
disease that kills at least 50,000 people each year. Their study
appears in the current edition of ACS Chemical Biology. In the
study, Michael Ferguson and colleagues cite an "urgent" need for
new treatments for the disease, which is spread by the tsetse
fly and also affects cattle — a precious possession that
represents a bank account on four feet to impoverished people in
sub-Sahara Africa. Current treatments for African sleeping
sickness, Ferguson says, are not only difficult to administer,
but also expensive and toxic. Their research identified the
first compound to impede a key step in an essential biochemical
pathway in the sleeping sickness parasite. Blocking this pathway
disrupts the production of a key glycolipid that anchors
protective proteins to the surface of the parasite. The analysis
also revealed notable differences betw