Trypanosomatid Molecular and Cellular Biology: A Comprehensive Overview

Every year, millions of people living in tropical areas across the globe are affected by trypanosomatids – the parasites causing Chagas disease, African trypanosomiasis, and leishmaniasis. These diseases, termed as neglected tropical diseases by the World Health Organization (WHO), have no effective vaccines and the few available treatments have many side effects, posing the risk of emerging drug-resistant parasite strains.

Many research initiatives have emerged in recent years aimed at uncovering the molecular and cellular biology of parasites, parasite-host interactions, mechanisms of disease pathogenesis, and molecular mechanisms of drug resistance. These efforts are essential for the development of novel anti-parasite treatments and eradication strategies.

This volume highlights discoveries in the field of trypanosomatid molecular and cellular biology, covering topics such as cell organization during development, genome organization and maintenance, control of gene expression, nuclear and kinetoplast DNA replication, mechanisms of DNA damage repair, virulence factors and immune evasion, new methods for molecular diagnosis, new therapeutic tools, and recombinant vaccine biology.

This monograph will be of interest to undergraduates (premedical and biologists), graduates (masters and Ph.D. students), the parasitology research community, and researchers working in related fields. It provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge in trypanosomatid biology and its implications for the development of novel treatments and eradication strategies for these neglected tropical diseases.

Series: Frontiers in Parasitology (Book 1)

Pages: 613

Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers (February 16, 2017)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1681084066

ISBN-13: 978-1681084060

Dimensions: 7 x 1.4 x 10 inches