Sleeping Sickness is a Circadian Disorder

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2018 Jan 6

PMID 29302035

Citations 47

Authors

Filipa Rijo-Ferreira

Tania Carvalho

Cristina Afonso

Margarida Sanches-Vaz

Rui M Costa

Luisa M Figueiredo

Joseph S Takahashi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Sleeping sickness is a fatal disease caused by Trypanosoma brucei, a unicellular parasite that lives in the bloodstream and interstitial spaces of peripheral tissues and the brain. Patients have altered sleep/wake cycles, body temperature, and endocrine profiles, but the underlying causes are unknown. Here, we show that the robust circadian rhythms of mice become phase advanced upon infection, with abnormal activity occurring during the rest phase. This advanced phase is caused by shortening of the circadian period both at the behavioral level as well as at the tissue and cell level. Period shortening is T. brucei specific and independent of the host immune response, as co-culturing parasites with explants or fibroblasts also shortens the clock period, whereas malaria infection does not. We propose that T. brucei causes an advanced circadian rhythm disorder, previously associated only with mutations in clock genes, which leads to changes in the timing of sleep.

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