Nature Communications (Oct 2017)

Variant surface glycoprotein density defines an immune evasion threshold for African trypanosomes undergoing antigenic variation

  • Jason Pinger,
  • Shanin Chowdhury,
  • F. Nina Papavasiliou

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00959-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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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.