By discovering the cause of why a camel’s urine smells so strongly, Trinity scientists might have found a cure for trypanosomiasis, a potentially fatal disease more commonly known as African sleeping sickness.
The disease is caused by chemical excreted by the trypanosome parasite, raising the possibility of new drugs and therapies to treat the illness. Additionally, because this by-product of the parasite modifies the behaviour of the body’s immune cells, it might also be able to treat inflammatory diseases.
Spread by fly bites, the disease can cause severe damage to the central nervous system, resulting in personality and behavioural change, confusion, disorientation and a change in the patient’s sleep cycle.
Scientists in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) now hope that the discovery can lead to treatment that can saves the lives of millions of people in Africa.
In a press release, Professor in Biochemistry at Trinity, Derek Nolan, said: “We are hopeful that by solving the riddle of the putrid camel pee, these new insights have unearthed a potential target for anti-trypanosome therapies, which are badly needed as sleeping sickness continues to claim a huge number of lives in sub-Saharan Africa.”
There is currently no vaccination for African sleeping sickness, and all current treatments are limited. Cases of the disease have declined somewhat in recent years, but it is still a major problem facing the population of sub-Saharan countries.
Nolan and his team collaborated with Trinity’s Professor of Biochemistry, Luke O’Neill, to make the discovery. “Camel herders have long known that the urine of camels infected with trypanosomes has a pungent odour, and is reddish brown in colour. We found that this is directly attributable to parasite breakdown of aromatic amino acids, such as tryptophan, in the host, and to the excretion of the novel by-products into the bloodstream”, Nolan said.
