Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Clemens Hinteregger, Johanna Dolensky, Werner Seebacher, Robert Saf, Pascal Maeser, Marcel Kaiser, Robert Weis
Summary: 2,4-Diaminopyrimidines and (dialkylamino)azabicyclo-nonanes have activity against protozoan parasites. A series of fused hybrids were synthesized and tested in vitro against malaria tropica and sleeping sickness pathogens. The activities and selectivities of compounds strongly depended on the substitution pattern of both ring systems as well as the position of the nitrogen atom in the bicycles.
Article
Cell Biology
Eliane Tihon, Karinna Rubio-Pena, Annick Dujeancourt-Henry, Aline Crouzols, Brice Rotureau, Lucy Glover
Summary: The life cycle of Trypanosoma brucei alternates between the tsetse fly vector and the mammalian host, and the infectivity to the host depends on the expression of metacyclic variant surface glycoprotein genes. This study reveals the role of VEX1 in the metacyclic differentiation process and its impact on the infectivity of T. brucei to mammalian hosts.
FRONTIERS IN CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Justin Y. Toh, Agathe Nkouawa, Saul Rojas Sanchez, Huafang Shi, Nikolay G. Kolev, Christian Tschudi
Summary: By targeting 86 transcripts through RNAi, 22 genes that positively or negatively regulate the progression towards infectivity in Trypanosoma brucei have been identified, including the previously unknown nucleic acid binding proteins CSD1 and CSD2. The study suggests a considerable overlap between the genes that regulate stumpy bloodstream form Trypanosoma and those that govern the development of metacyclic form parasites.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Immunology
Manon Geerts, Nick Van Reet, Sander Leyten, Raf Berghmans, Kat S. Rock, Theresa H. T. Coetzer, Lauren E-A Eyssen, Philippe Buscher
Summary: The newly developed T. b. gambiense inhibition ELISA (g-iELISA) based on the principle of antibody binding showed high specificity and sensitivity, making it suitable for regional laboratories in gHAT endemic countries for monitoring and surveillance.
CLINICAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES
(2021)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Gerardo Priotto, Jose R. Franco, Veerle Lejon, Philippe Buscher, Enock Matovu, Joseph Ndung'u, Sylvain Bieler, Dieudonne Mumba, Nick Van Reet, Paul Verle, Vincent Jamonneau, Pere P. Simarro, Augustin Kadima Ebeja, Dieudonne Sankara, Daniel Argaw Dagne
Summary: Human African trypanosomiasis is a parasitic infection transmitted by the tsetse fly in sub-Saharan Africa. Efforts to eliminate transmission of the disease by 2030 have led to the development of a target product profile for a method to verify the absence of transmission. This method needs to be performed in national or sub-national reference laboratories and have characteristics such as simple specimen collection, no cold-chain requirement, high sensitivity and specificity, high-throughput automated testing, low cost per specimen, and applicability to animals.
BULLETIN OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
(2023)
Review
Cell Biology
Bibo Li
Summary: Telomeres and subtelomeres play crucial roles in maintaining chromosome stability and adapting to environmental changes, particularly in the case of the Trypanosoma brucei parasite. The similarities and differences in telomere factors between T. brucei, human, and yeast cells are important for understanding genome stability mechanisms.
FRONTIERS IN CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Joseph T. Smith Jr, Brianna Tylec, Arunasalam Naguleswaran, Isabel Roditi, Laurie K. Read
Summary: This study reveals the importance of mitochondrial mRNA editing in the developmental regulation of Trypanosoma brucei. The researchers found that temperature reduction and depletion of the differentiation-repressive kinase RDK1 can affect the metabolism of Trypanosoma brucei by altering the editing of mitochondrial cytochrome mRNAs.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Samya S. Alenezi, Naif D. Alenezi, Godwin U. Ebiloma, Manal J. Natto, Marzuq A. Ungogo, John O. Igoli, Valerie A. Ferro, Alexander I. Gray, James Fearnley, Harry P. de Koning, David G. Watson
Summary: Propolis is a resin gathered by bees from plant exudates, and its composition depends on the nearby plants. It acts as an anti-infective and has anti-protozoal properties. Red Nigerian propolis was found to be highly active against Trypanosoma brucei and T. congolense, and four isoflavonoids isolated from the propolis displayed high activity against the parasites.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Srinivasan Ramakrishnan, Rodrigo P. Baptista, Beejan Asady, Guozhong Huang, Roberto Docampo
Summary: In Trypanosoma brucei, down-regulation of Vps41 expression through RNAi leads to significant inhibition of endocytosis, affecting cell growth, while other functions of Vps41 in mammalian and yeast cells remain unaffected. The essentiality of TbVps41 suggests it as a potential drug target.
Article
Biology
Desislava P. Staneva, Stefan Bresson, Tatsiana Auchynnikava, Christos Spanos, Juri Rappsilber, A. Arockia Jeyaprakash, David Tollervey, Keith R. Matthews, Robin C. Allshire
Summary: This study reveals the unique gene expression regulation mechanism in kinetoplastids, a highly divergent lineage of eukaryotes. The researchers identified a complex called SPARC, which consists of SET27 and CRD1, among other components, that is involved in establishing accurate promoter position and directionality.
Article
Cell Biology
Naiwen Zhang, Ning Jiang, Liying Yu, Tiandong Guan, Xiaoyu Sang, Ying Feng, Ran Chen, Qijun Chen
Summary: The study provides the first comprehensive investigation of lactylated sites in Trypanosoma brucei, revealing the regulatory roles of protein lactylation in energy metabolism and gene expression in this parasite. It was found that glucose metabolism critically regulates protein lactylation in T. brucei, and a unique lactate production pathway is involved in the decrease of protein lactylation levels when glucose concentration increases.
FRONTIERS IN CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Letter
Biology
Keith R. Matthews, Stephen Larcombe
Summary: The study finds that both slender and stumpy forms of trypanosomes can infect tsetse flies, but stumpy forms are more likely to be successful. Stumpy forms are defined by molecular adaptations for life-cycle progression and dominate in chronic infections.
Article
Cell Biology
Justin A. Davis, Andres V. Reyes, Arpita Saha, Donald J. Wolfgeher, Shou-Ling Xu, Andrew W. Truman, Bibo Li, Kausik Chakrabarti
Summary: Telomerase is an enzyme responsible for maintaining the telomeres of chromosomes. It consists of two main components, telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and telomerase RNA (TR). TR, a long non-coding RNA, provides the template for telomeric DNA synthesis. In this study, the interactome of TbTERT from Trypanosoma brucei was identified, revealing unique interactions and suggesting differences in telomere maintenance compared to other eukaryotes.
FRONTIERS IN CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Cell Biology
James Budzak, Gloria Rudenko
Summary: The African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei has a dense layer of Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG) coat that protects it from immune attack. High levels of RNA transcription and pre-mRNA processing, as well as chromatin rearrangement, are important for the abundant expression of VSG.
FRONTIERS IN CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Karol R. Francisco, Ludovica Monti, Wenqian Yang, Hayoung Park, Lawrence J. Liu, Kaitlyn Watkins, Dilini K. Amarasinghe, Marianna Nalli, Carlos Roberto Polaquini, Luis O. Regasini, Antonio Eduardo Miller Crotti, Romano Silvestri, Lizandra Guidi Magalha, Conor R. Caffrey
Summary: Trypanosoma brucei is a parasitic protozoan that causes Human African Trypanosomiasis. A study evaluated the antitrypanosomal activity of curcuminoids and analogs against T. b. brucei and found that certain dibenzylideneacetone (DBA) compounds exhibited potent activity. Further research on DBA analogs identified compounds with low EC50 values and high selectivity indices. These findings suggest that DBAs could serve as a starting point for developing new small molecule therapies for HAT.
BIOORGANIC & MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Agnieszka J. Szwalbe, Katherine Williams, Daniel E. O'Flynn, Andrew M. Bailey, Nicholas P. Mulholland, Jason L. Vincent, Christine L. Willis, Russell J. Cox, Thomas J. Simpson
CHEMICAL COMMUNICATIONS
(2015)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Katherine Williams, Agnieszka J. Szwalbe, Nicholas P. Mulholland, Jason L. Vincent, Andrew M. Bailey, Christine L. Willis, Thomas J. Simpson, Russell J. Cox
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2016)
Article
Plant Sciences
Shu-Shan Gao, Xiao-Ming Li, Katherine Williams, Peter Proksch, Nai-Yun Ji, Bin-Gui Wang
JOURNAL OF NATURAL PRODUCTS
(2016)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Laura M. Halo, Mary N. Heneghan, Ahmed A. Yakasai, Zhongshu Song, Katherine Williams, Andrew M. Bailey, Russell J. Cox, Colin M. Lazarus, Thomas J. Simpson
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
(2008)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
C. M. Lazarus, K. Williams, A. M. Bailey
NATURAL PRODUCT REPORTS
(2014)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Mary N. Heneghan, Ahmed A. Yakasai, Katherine Williams, Khomaizon A. Kadir, Zahida Wasil, Walid Bakeer, Katja M. Fisch, Andrew M. Bailey, Thomas J. Simpson, Russell J. Cox, Colin M. Lazarus
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Suhad A. A. Al-Salihi, Trong Tuan Dao, Katherine Williams, Andy M. Bailey, Gary D. Foster
MOLECULAR BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2019)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Katherine Williams, Claudio Greco, Andrew M. Bailey, Christine L. Willis
Summary: Azaphilones are a family of fungal natural products with interesting and useful bioactivities. Research has identified their biosynthetic pathways and proposed a consensus scheme. Consensus understanding of core enzymatic steps can aid in genome mining experiments.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Yoana D. Petrova, Jinlian Zhao, Gordon Webster, Alex J. Mullins, Katherine Williams, Amal S. Alswat, Gregory L. Challis, Andy M. Bailey, Eshwar Mahenthiralingam
Summary: Burkholderia have diverse biosynthetic gene clusters and can be used as biocontrol agents. Heterologous expression of these gene clusters in non-pathogenic hosts can construct safe biocontrol strains. By optimizing a yeast-adapted shuttle vector, Burkholderia biosynthetic gene clusters were successfully cloned and expressed in heterologous hosts. The heterologous gene-expressing strains showed antimicrobial activity against plant pathogens in hosts with preferred growth temperature.
MICROBIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Katherine Williams, Agnieszka J. Szwalbe, Kate M. J. De Mattos-Shipley, Andy M. Bailey, Russell J. Cox, Christine L. Willis
Summary: This review provides an overview of the discovery, structural elucidation, and recent advances in the bioactivity studies of Maleidrides compounds. Maleidrides possess significant pharmaceutical and agrochemical activities, and their unusual biosynthetic pathways have fascinated scientists for decades.
NATURAL PRODUCT REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Mycology
Trong T. Dao, Kate M. J. de Mattos-Shipley, Ian M. Prosser, Katherine Williams, Marija K. Zacharova, Colin M. Lazarus, Christine L. Willis, Andrew M. Bailey
Summary: This study focuses on using filamentous fungi as cellular factories for natural product discovery, particularly through refactoring and expressing natural product pathways in host strains. Deletion of the negative regulator mcrA can increase secondary metabolite production, while disrupting certain metabolic pathways simplifies the detection and purification of heterologous compounds. Modification of host strains using CRISPR-Cas9 technology resulted in a new strain, NSARAK, combining beneficial traits of NSAR1 with a clean secondary metabolite background.
FRONTIERS IN FUNGAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xiao-Long Yang, Steffen Friedrich, Sen Yin, Oliver Piech, Katherine Williams, Thomas J. Simpson, Russell J. Cox
Article
Microbiology
Alice M. Banks, Farhana Aminuddin, Katherine Williams, Thomas Batstone, Gary L. A. Barker, Gary D. Foster, Andy M. Bailey
MICROBIOLOGY RESOURCE ANNOUNCEMENTS
(2019)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Agnieszka J. Szwalbe, Katherine Williams, Zhongshu Song, Kate de Mattos-Shipley, Jason L. Vincent, Andrew M. Bailey, Christine L. Willis, Russell J. Cox, Thomas J. Simpson
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Katherine Williams, Agnieszka J. Szwalbe, Claire Dickson, Tim R. Desson, Nicholas P. Mulholland, Jason L. Vincent, John M. Clough, Andrew M. Bailey, Craig P. Butts, Christine L. Willis, Thomas J. Simpson, Russell J. Cox
CHEMICAL COMMUNICATIONS
(2017)