Nature Communications (Oct 2017)
Variant surface glycoprotein density defines an immune evasion threshold for African trypanosomes undergoing antigenic variation
Abstract
Trypanosoma brucei evades the host immune system through replacement of a variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) coat. Here, the authors show that VSG replacement takes several days to complete, and the parasite is vulnerable to the host immune system for a short period of time during the process.