Another compelling example of the shortcomings of available treatments is HAT (Mina et al. 2009; Buckner et al. 2012), where there is a lack of effective vaccines (Black & Mansfield, 2016) and treatment depends on the stage of the disease. Whilst in the first stage, the drugs used are less toxic, easier to administer and more effective, treatment in the second stage requires drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier, specifically the arsenates (Gibaud & Jaouen, 2010), making them considerably more toxic and complex to administer (Babokhov et al. 2013). Currently, four drugs are registered for HAT treatment and are provided free of charge to endemic countries through a WHO private partnership with Sanofi-Aventis (Pentamidine, melarsoprol and eflornithine) and Bayer AG (suramin) (Schmidt et al. 2012). Unfortunately, all of them exhibit a broad range of adverse effects. Moreover, treatment regimens are usually highly restrictive, particularly in the second stage of the disease, requiring hospital-based I.V. treatment with continuous monitoring.