Belgian scientists say that small antibodies taken from the dromedary may prove useful in treating tropical parasites such as the African trypanosome, which causes sleeping sickness. Penetrating the dense, variable-specific surface glycoproteins that coat the organism, such antibodies may be able to zero in on conserved oligosaccharides hidden beneath. Serge Muyl-dermans and colleagues at the University of Brussels demonstrated its use as a diagnostic reagent for
Others who study tropical diseases doubt the wide applicability of such a technique. David Horn, lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, writes in an E-mail, "The broad relevance of such reagents is questionable, since I'm not aware of other parasites with such dense surface coats that would provide ...
