VSG-seq of HAT patients infected with Trypanosoma brucei gambiense

Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, an extracellular protozoan parasite, is the primary causative agent of human African Trypanosomiasis. T. b. gambiense is endemic to West and Central Africa where it is transmitted by the bite of infected tsetse flies. In the bloodstream of an infected host, the parasite evades antibody recognition by altering the Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG) that forms a dense coat on its cell surface. Each VSG has a variable N-terminal domain that is exposed to the host and a less variable C-terminal domain that is at least partially hidden from host antibodies. Our lab developed VSG-seq, a targeted RNA-seq method, to study VSG expression in T. brucei. Studies using VSG-seq to characterize VSG expression in a mouse model have revealed marked diversity in VSG expression within parasite populations, but this finding has not yet been validated in a natural human infection. Here, we used VSG-seq to analyze VSGs expressed in the blood of twelve patients with a confirmed T. b. gambiense infection.