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Beyond immune escape: a variant surface glycoprotein causes suramin resistance in Trypanosoma brucei.

  • Wiedemar N Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel CH-4002, Switzerland.
  • Graf FE Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel CH-4002, Switzerland.
  • Zwyer M Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel CH-4002, Switzerland.
  • Ndomba E Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel CH-4002, Switzerland.
  • Kunz Renggli C Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel CH-4002, Switzerland.
  • Cal M Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel CH-4002, Switzerland.
  • Schmidt RS Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel CH-4002, Switzerland.
  • Wenzler T Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel CH-4002, Switzerland.
  • Mäser P Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel CH-4002, Switzerland.
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  • 2017-10-01
Published in:
  • Molecular microbiology. - 2018
Animals
Antigenic Variation
Drug Resistance
Genome
Membrane Glycoproteins
Suramin
Trypanosoma brucei brucei
Trypanosomiasis, African
Variant Surface Glycoproteins, Trypanosoma
English Suramin is one of the first drugs developed in a medicinal chemistry program (Bayer, 1916), and it is still the treatment of choice for the hemolymphatic stage of African sleeping sickness caused by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. Cellular uptake of suramin occurs by endocytosis, and reverse genetic studies with T. b. brucei have linked downregulation of the endocytic pathway to suramin resistance. Here we show that forward selection for suramin resistance in T. brucei spp. cultures is fast, highly reproducible and linked to antigenic variation. Bloodstream-form trypanosomes are covered by a dense coat of variant surface glycoprotein (VSG), which protects them from their mammalian hosts' immune defenses. Each T. brucei genome contains over 2000 different VSG genes, but only one is expressed at a time. An expression switch to one particular VSG, termed VSGSur , correlated with suramin resistance. Reintroduction of the originally expressed VSG gene in resistant T. brucei restored suramin susceptibility. This is the first report of a link between antigenic variation and drug resistance in African trypanosomes.
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  • English
Open access status
hybrid
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https://sonar.ch/global/documents/81863
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