Researchers are using the human protein ApoL-1 along with a nanobody to kill the infection caused by pathogenic parasites, that the human body is powerless to fight.
Promising lab tests on mice are giving scientists the headway and insight needed to make the transition to treating humans who suffer from the sickness.
About 300,000 people worldwide die each year from the deadly African sleeping sickness or (trypanosomiasis). Medical professionals say the disease produces severe sleep disorders that ultimately end in coma, followed by death.
Currently less than 10% of the patients are treated in time and when they do get treatment the regimen is very toxic, and in many cases also results in the patient's death.
African sleeping sickness is a disorder caused by the trypanosome parasite. The blood-sucking tsetse fly transmits the parasite from person to person. Once someone has been infected by the parasite, the person's body has great difficulty getting the infection under control, because the parasite constantly changes appearance and remains impervious to the antibodies that the body produces.
