Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 21, 2026

Purification of Extracellular Trypanosomes, Including African, from Blood by Anion-Exchangers (Diethylaminoethyl-cellulose Columns)
Published on: April 6, 2019
High-density lipoprotein-mediated lysis of trypanosomes
S L Hajduk1, K Hager, J D Esko
1Department of Biochemistry, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
Nearly 90 years after the discovery that certain African trypanosornes were killed by normal human serum, we still do not understand how this innate trypanocidal factor works. Biochemical studies have provided us with an unlikely candidate: human high-density lipoprotein (HDL). This trypanosome lytic factor (TLF) from human serum is important since its activity restricts the host range of Trypanosoma brucei brucei, and the expression of this natural killing factor in cattle would represent a novel approach to the control of bovine tryponosomiasis. Here, Steve Hajduk, Kristin Hager and Jeffrey Esko discuss evidence for the TLF being a minor subclass of serum HDL and propose a mechanism for lysis based on the binding, endocytosis and lysosomal targeting of TLF.
Nearly 90 years after the discovery that certain African trypanosornes were killed by normal human serum, we still do not understand how this innate trypanocidal factor works. Biochemical studies have provided us with an unlikely candidate: human high-density lipoprotein (HDL). This trypanosome lytic factor (TLF) from human serum is important since its activity restricts the host range of Trypanosoma brucei brucei, and the expression of this natural killing factor in cattle would represent a novel approach to the control of bovine tryponosomiasis. Here, Steve Hajduk, Kristin Hager and Jeffrey Esko discuss evidence for the TLF being a minor subclass of serum HDL and propose a mechanism for lysis based on the binding, endocytosis and lysosomal targeting of TLF.
Related Concept Videos
Antiprotozoal Agents
American Trypanosomiasis
Leishmaniasis

