Tsetse flies, trypanosomes, humans and animals: what is proteomics revealing about their crosstalks?

Abstract

Human and animal African trypanosomoses, or sleeping sickness and Nagana, are neglected vector-borne parasitic diseases caused by protozoa belonging to the Trypanosoma genus. Advances in proteomics offer new tools to better understand host–vector–parasite crosstalks occurring during the complex parasitic developmental cycle, and to determine the outcome of both transmission and infection. In this review, we summarize proteomics studies performed on African trypanosomes and on the interactions with their vector and mammalian hosts. We discuss the contributions and pitfalls of using diverse proteomics tools, and argue about the interest of pathogenoproteomics, both to generate advances in basic research on the best knowledge and understanding of host–vector–pathogen interactions, and to lead to the concrete development of new tools to improve diagnosis and treatment management of trypanosomoses in the near future.

Keywords::

• African trypanosome
• host–vector–parasite interaction
• proteomics

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments, and we also apologize to authors whose work was not cited owing to space restrictions.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Philippe Holzmuller is supported by CIRAD, Pascal Grébaut and Gérard Cuny by IRD and David Georges Biron by a Haigneré grant of INRA. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.