Sacrificing Fat Mass to Control Sleeping Sickness Caused by Trypanosoma brucei

A new study led by Luísa Figueiredo, PhD, Group Leader at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM; Portugal), and published on October 12, 2023 in Nature Microbiology found a new strategy by the host to cope with Trypanosoma brucei infection. Trypanosoma brucei is the parasite that causes sleeping sickness in humans, and nagana in cattle, which remain a public health concern and a major economic burden in Sub-Saharan Africa. Understanding the response of the infected organism during disease progression paves the way for the development of new treatment strategies. The open-access article is titled “Adipocyte Lipolysis Protects Mice Against Trypanosoma brucei Infection.”