X-rays Expose Blueprint for Possible Sleeping Sickness Drug (2 of 3) (IMAGE)

Helmholtz Association

X-rays Expose Blueprint for Possible Sleeping Sickness Drug (2 of 3)

Caption

This is a colored electron micrograph of the bloodstream form of the Trypanosoma brucei parasite (light blue) that causes African trypanosomiasis (also called sleeping sickness) in humans in the presence of erythrocytes (red) and lymphocytes (yellow). After infection of the mammalian host by bite of the tsetse fly, the parasite lives within the bloodstream, before it invades the central nervous system and the brain to cause fatal effects.

Credit

Michael Duszenko, University of Tuebingen.

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