RESEARCHERS who cracked the secret of humanitys genetic code
have discovered a type of bacteria which has learned to hide among
the bodys own cells.
Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre in Hinxton have
been looking at the secrets of the tiny Tropheryma whipplei
bacterium, which has proved to be a master of disguise.
Working with colleagues in the UK, USA and Germany, they say it
carries a series of DNA sequences and can change its outer coating
to avoid detection by the bodys immune system.
Amazingly it can also cloak itself in membranes stripped from
surrounding cells to further improve its disguise.
Once hidden in the hosts body it settles down to multiply,
occasionally breaking out to cause disease.
The researchers hope closer examination of Tropheryma whipplei will
help explain how other pathogens survive and spread.
Dr Stephen Bentley, who led the team at The Wellcome Trust Sanger
Institute, said, This really is a wolf in sheeps clothing.
Within this amazingly small genome, it has packed a sophisticated
array of tools to escape our defence mechanisms. Its an incredibly
adept operator which can tell us a great deal about bacteria and
their evolution.
Even with its genome sequence plotted and a prediction of all the
proteins it can make, the bacterium remains a mystery.
The organism lives in the lining of the gut but it is not known how
it is spread or even how many cases of disease it causes.
Whipples disease is marked by weight loss, diarrhoea and abdominal
pain. Advanced cases may die from heart disease or neurological
disease up to 20 years later.
Treatment once diagnosed is usually very effective, although
relapses years later are quite common.
Bizarrely, men are eight times more likely to be infected than
women.
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