'Death and axes': unexpected Ca²? entry phenologs predict new anti-schistosomal agents.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Chan JD
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3930560 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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'Death and axes': unexpected Ca²⁺ entry phenologs predict new anti-schistosomal agents.
Chan John D JD Agbedanu Prince N PN Zamanian Mostafa M Gruba Sarah M SM Haynes Christy L CL Day Timothy A TA Marchant Jonathan S JS
PLoS pathogens 20140220 2
Schistosomiasis is a parasitic flatworm disease that infects 200 million people worldwide. The drug praziquantel (PZQ) is the mainstay therapy but the target of this drug remains ambiguous. While PZQ paralyses and kills parasitic schistosomes, in free-living planarians PZQ caused an unusual axis duplication during regeneration to yield two-headed animals. Here, we show that PZQ activation of a neuronal Ca²⁺ channel modulates opposing dopaminergic and serotonergic pathways to regulate 'head' stru ...[more]
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