Characterized by fever, headaches, and sleepiness, African sleeping sickness or trypanosomiasis is caused by a parasite that is transmitted to humans through the bites of tsetse fly.

Previously tested in humans and animals (but now abandoned), the anticancer drug acivicin has been found to suppress the infection on mice infected with the trypanosome parasite for at least a month without serious side effects.

The said parasite usually escapes destruction of its host immune system because it is coated with a protein that is constantly changing. However, it could have weakness in its low content of a molecule necessary for cell survival - cytidine triphosphate (CTP).

This is when the action of the cancer drug acivicin comes in: it inhibits the cytidine triphosphate synthetase - the enzyme that helps synthesize CTP.

The study results raise the hope that acivicin can be potentially used for the treatment of African sleeping disease.

Source: Science Daily; [article abstract]

[Photo Credit: Nature]