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Cited by 286

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 28 of the 28 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The skin is a significant but overlooked anatomical reservoir for vector-borne African trypanosomes

Open access
Capewell, Paul, Cren-Travaillé, Christelle, Marchesi, Francesco, Johnston, Pamela, Clucas, Caroline, Benson, Robert A, Gorman, Taylor-Anne, Calvo-Alvarez, Estefania, Crouzols, Aline, Jouvion, Grégory, Jamonneau, Vincent, Weir, William, Stevenson, M Lynn, O'Neill, Kerry, Cooper, Anneli, Swar, Nono-raymond Kuispond, Bucheton, Bruno, Ngoyi, Dieudonné Mumba, Garside, Paul, Rotureau, Brice, MacLeod, Annette·2016·eLife

Abstract

The role of mammalian skin in harbouring and transmitting arthropod-borne protozoan parasites has been overlooked for decades as these pathogens have been regarded primarily as blood-dwelling organisms. Intriguingly, infections with low or undetected blood parasites are common, particularly in the case of Human African Trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense. We hypothesise, therefore, the skin represents an anatomic reservoir of infection. Here we definitively show that substantial quantities of trypanosomes exist within the skin following experimental infection, which can be transmitted to the tsetse vector, even in the absence of detectable parasitaemia. Importantly, we demonstrate the presence of extravascular parasites in human skin biopsies from undiagnosed individuals. The identification of this novel reservoir requires a re-evaluation of current diagnostic methods and control policies. More broadly, our results indicate that transmission is a key evolutionary force driving parasite extravasation that could further result in tissue invasion-dependent pathology.

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Metadata

Authors
Capewell, P., Cren-Travaillé, C., Marchesi, F., Johnston, P., Clucas, C., Benson, R. A., Gorman, T.-A., Calvo-Alvarez, E., Crouzols, A., Jouvion, G., Jamonneau, V., Weir, W., Stevenson, M. L., O'Neill, K., Cooper, A., Swar, N.-R. K., Bucheton, B., Ngoyi, D. M., Garside, P., Rotureau, B., & MacLeod, A.
Venue
eLife
Published
2016-09-22
Volume
5
ISSN
2050-084X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2522471325
Cited by
286
References
28
FWCI
25.08
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
gold

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The skin is a significant but overlooked anatomical reservoir for vector-borne African trypanosomes. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.7554/elife.17716
The paper
Capewell, P., Cren-Travaillé, C., Marchesi, F., Johnston, P., Clucas, C., Benson, R. A., Gorman, T.-A., Calvo-Alvarez, E., Crouzols, A., Jouvion, G., Jamonneau, V., Weir, W., Stevenson, M. L., O'Neill, K., Cooper, A., Swar, N.-R. K., Bucheton, B., Ngoyi, D. M., Garside, P., . . . MacLeod, A. (2016). The skin is a significant but overlooked anatomical reservoir for vector-borne African trypanosomes. eLife. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.17716

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.