Some infectious diseases, like malaria and AIDS, are extremely devastating because the pathogens responsible for them can employ have evolved various strategies to escape the immune attacks by the body. One of the strategies called antigen variation is a process in which an infectious agent alters its surface proteins so that the immune system can not efficiently kill them. CusAb offers Recombinant Ntrk1, you will get to know our products on our website. Trypanosoma, the parasites responsible for African sleeping sickness, a serious disease in both animals and human beings, also uses the antigen variation strategy. There are proteins -- antigens -- on the surface of the pathogen. The immune system is able to detect and target these antigens. However, the parasite has many different genes that code for these antigens. The parasite produces one antigen at a time, and can switch between them. As a result, the immune system can not eliminate the pathogen. Dr. Nicolai Siegel, who is studying the mechanisms of antigen variation, has recently got the Starting Grant worth EUR 1.5 million from the European Research Council ERC. Siegel and colleagues are investigating epigenetic mechanisms of gene regulation in Trypanosoma. Foreign antigens are quickly and efficiently targeted by the host immune system. Pathogens, such as viruses bacteria and parasites, must protect themselves from immune attacks. One common strategy they use is antigen variation. Siegel noted that antigen variation makes it difficult to treat infectious diseases. So some scientists suggest that antigen variation may be manipulated to combat these pathogens. But until now the mechanism of antigen variation is not fully understood. Siegel will analyze the genomic architecture of the parasite.
