New Research Reveals How Giardia Parasite Changes Its Appearance
Summary
A 20 year search has helped international research scholar Hugo D. Luján explain how the Giardia parasite hides from the immune system.
Giardia parasites can change the proteins on their surface, which helps them to evade the immune system, but only one protein is on the surface at any one time. This Giardia parasite has been engineered to exhibit two proteins on its surface, shown in green and red.
Like a gang of bandits that changes clothes after a heist to avoid capture, the intestinal parasite Giardia lamblia alters its appearance to outwit the human immune system. Now, after a 20-year search, experiments by Howard Hughes Medical Institute international research scholar Hugo D. Luján reveal how the parasite shifts disguises.