A new study led by Luísa Figueiredo, group leader at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM; Portugal) and published today in the scientific journal Nature describes a new mechanism that decorates the end tails of RNA molecules, and prevents their degradation. This phenomenon, discovered for the first time in Trypanosoma brucei, the parasite that causes sleeping sickness, could be determinant for the virulence of the parasite. This fundamental discovery opens new avenues for treatment strategies for this disease but also for other RNA-based infections/diseases.
