Schistosoma mansoni Vector Snails in Antigua and Montserrat, with Snail-Related Considerations Pertinent to a Declaration of Elimination of Human Schistosomiasis.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Laidemitt MR
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7695099 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Background: The parasitic trematode Schistosoma mansoni is one of the major causative agents of human schistosomiasis, which afflicts 200 million people worldwide. Praziquantel is still the only drug used for schistosomiasis treatment and reduction in drug efficiency has prompting the search for new therapeutic compounds against this disease. Our group has demonstrated that heme crystallization into hemozoin (Hz) within S. mansoni gut is a major heme detoxification route involving lipid droplets in this process and acting as a potential chemotherapeutical target. In the present work, we investigated the effects of the antimalarial quinine (QN) in a murine schistosomiasis model by using a combination of biochemical, cell biology and molecular biology approaches. Methodology/Principal Findings: Treatment of S. mansoni-infected female Swiss mice with daily intraperitoneal injections of QN (75mg/kg/day) from 11th to 17th day after infection decreased not only total, males and females worm burden (46.2 %-51.0 %), eggs production, but also the granulomatous reaction to parasite eggs trapped in the liver. These effects correlated with a significant impairment of Hz production (40%) specifically in S. mansoni females, being parallel to remarkable ultrastructural changes in female worms, particularly in the gut epithelium. Microarray gene expression analysis indicated that QN treatment increased the expression of transcripts related to musculature, protein synthesis and repair mechanisms. Conclusions: The overall significant reduction in several disease burden parameters by QN treatment indicates that interference of Hz formation in S. mansoni is a valid chemotherapeutical target for development of new antischistosomal drugs.
2009-07-13 | GSE14751 | GEO
Project description:Parasites can harm hosts and influence populations, communities, and ecosystems. However, parasites are reciprocally affected by population- and community-level dynamics. Understanding feedbacks between infection dynamics and larger-scale epidemiological and ecological processes could improve predictions and reveal novel control methods. We evaluated how exploitative resource competition among hosts, a fundamental aspect of population biology, influences within-host infection dynamics of the widespread human parasite Schistosoma mansoni in its intermediate host, Biomphalaria glabrata. We added size-dependent consumption of shared resources to a parameterized bioenergetics model to predict a priori the growth, parasite production, and survival of an infected focal host coexisting with an uninfected conspecific competitor in an experiment that varied competitor size. The model quantitatively anticipated that competitors disrupt growth and parasite production and that these effects increase with competitor size. Fitting the model to these data improved its match to host survivorship. Thus, resource competition alters infection dynamics, there are strong size asymmetries in these effects, and size-asymmetric resource competition effects on infection dynamics can be accurately predicted by bioenergetics theory. More broadly, this framework can assess parasite transmission and control in other contexts, such as in resource competitive host communities, or in response to eutrophication, food supplementation, or culling.
| S-EPMC8249335 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Host-parasite interaction can result in a strong alteration of the host-associated microbiota. This dysbiosis can affect the fitness of the host; can modify pathogen interaction and the outcome of diseases. Biomphalaria glabrata is the snail intermediate host of the trematode Schistosoma mansoni, the agent of human schistosomiasis, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. Here, we present the first study of the snail bacterial microbiota in response to Schistosoma infection. We examined the interplay between B. glabrata, S. mansoni and host microbiota. Snails were infected and the microbiota composition was analysed by 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing approach. We demonstrated that the microbial composition of water did not affect the microbiota composition. Then, we characterised the Biomphalaria bacterial microbiota at the individual scale in both naive and infected snails. Sympatric and allopatric strains of parasites were used for infections and re-infections to analyse the modification or dysbiosis of snail microbiota in different host-parasite co-evolutionary contexts. Concomitantly, using RNAseq, we investigated the link between bacterial microbiota dysbiosis and snail anti-microbial peptide immune response. This work paves the way for a better understanding of snail/schistosome interaction and should have critical consequences in terms of snail control strategies for fighting schistosomiasis disease in the field.
| S-EPMC8158356 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Schistosomiasis is an infectious disease infecting mammals as the definitive host and fresh water snails as the intermediate host. Understanding the molecular and biochemical relationship between the causative schistosome parasite and its hosts will be key to understanding and ultimately treating and/or eradicating the disease. There is increasing evidence that pathogens that have co-evolved with their hosts can manipulate their hosts' behaviour at various levels to augment an infection. Bacteria, for example, can induce beneficial chromatin remodelling of the host genome. We have previously shown in vitro that Biomphalaria glabrata embryonic cells co-cultured with schistosome miracidia display genes changing their nuclear location and becoming up-regulated. This also happens in vivo in live intact snails, where early exposure to miracidia also elicits non-random repositioning of genes. We reveal differences in the nuclear repositioning between the response of parasite susceptible snails as compared to resistant snails and with normal or live, attenuated parasites. Interestingly, the stress response gene heat shock protein (Hsp) 70 is only repositioned and then up-regulated in susceptible snails with the normal parasite. This movement and change in gene expression seems to be controlled by the parasite. Other differences in the behaviour of genes support the view that some genes are responding to tissue damage, for example the ferritin genes move and are up-regulated whether the snails are either susceptible or resistant and upon exposure to either normal or attenuated parasite. This is the first time host genome reorganisation has been seen in a parasitic host and only the second time for any pathogen. We believe that the parasite elicits a spatio-epigenetic reorganisation of the host genome to induce favourable gene expression for itself and this might represent a fundamental mechanism present in the human host infected with schistosome cercariae as well as in other host-pathogen relationships.
| S-EPMC4161332 | biostudies-literature
Project description:To provide information to guide considerations of declaring interruption of transmission of human schistosomiasis due to Schistosoma mansoni on St. Lucia, we undertook an island-wide survey in June-July 2022 to determine the presence of Biomphalaria snails, the intermediate hosts of S. mansoni, and their infection status. Snail surveys were carried out at 58 habitats to determine presence of Biomphalaria snails followed by examination of the collected snails for evidence of infection with S. mansoni. Furthermore, water samples were collected at the snail habitats and screened for presence of S. mansoni DNA using an eDNA approach. We found B. glabrata present in one habitat (Cul de Sac) where it was abundant. Specimens provisionally identified as Biomphalaria kuhniana were recovered from 10 habitats. None of the Biomphalaria specimens recovered were positive for S. mansoni. None of the eDNA water samples screened were positive for S. mansoni. Experimental exposures of both field-derived and laboratory-reared St. Lucian B. glabrata and B. kuhniana to Puerto Rican and Kenyan-derived S. mansoni strains revealed B. glabrata to be susceptible to both and B. kuhniana proved refractory from histological and snail shedding results. We conclude, given the current rarity of B. glabrata on the island and lack of evidence for the presence of S. mansoni, that transmission is unlikely to be ongoing. Coupled with negative results from recent human serological surveys, and implementation of improved sanitation and provision of safe water supplies, St. Lucia should be considered a candidate for declaration of interruption of human schistosomiasis transmission.
| S-EPMC10551094 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Schistosomiasis threatens hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The larval stage of Schistosoma mansoni migrates through the lung and adult worms reside adjacent to the colonic mucosa. Several candidate vaccines are in preclinical development, but none is designed to elicit both systemic and mucosal responses. We have repurposed an attenuated Salmonella enterica Typhimurium strain (YS1646) to express Cathepsin B (CatB), a digestive enzyme important for the juvenile and adult stages of the S. mansoni life cycle. Previous studies have demonstrated the prophylactic and therapeutic efficacy of our plasmid-based vaccine. Here, we have generated chromosomally integrated (CI) YS1646 strains that express CatB to produce a viable candidate vaccine for eventual human use (stability, no antibiotic resistance). 6-8-week-old C57BL/6 mice were vaccinated in a multimodal oral (PO) and intramuscular (IM) regimen, and then sacrificed 3 weeks later. The PO + IM group had significantly higher anti-CatB IgG titers with greater avidity and mounted significant intestinal anti-CatB IgA responses compared to PBS control mice (all P < 0.0001). Multimodal vaccination generated balanced TH1/TH2 humoral and cellular immune responses. Production of IFNγ by both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells was confirmed by flow cytometry (P < 0.0001 & P < 0.01). Multimodal vaccination reduced worm burden by 80.4%, hepatic egg counts by 75.2%, and intestinal egg burden by 78.4% (all P < 0.0001). A stable and safe vaccine that has both prophylactic and therapeutic activity would be ideal for use in conjunction with praziquantel mass treatment campaigns.
| S-EPMC9969381 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Malaria and schistosomiasis coinfections are common, and chronic schistosomiasis has been implicated in affecting the severity of acute malaria. However, whether it enhances or attenuates malaria has been controversial due the lack of appropriately controlled human studies and relevant animal models. To examine this interaction, we conducted a randomized controlled study using the baboon (Papio anubis) to analyze the effect of chronic schistosomiasis on severe malaria. Two groups of baboons (n = 8 each) and a schistosomiasis control group (n = 3) were infected with 500 Schistosoma mansoni cercariae. At 14 and 15 weeks postinfection, one group was given praziquantel to treat schistosomiasis infection. Four weeks later, the two groups plus a new malaria control group (n = 8) were intravenously inoculated with 10(5) Plasmodium knowlesi parasites and monitored daily for development of severe malaria. A total of 81% of baboons exposed to chronic S. mansoni infection with or without praziquantel treatment survived malaria, compared to only 25% of animals infected with P. knowlesi only (P = 0.01). Schistosome-infected animals also had significantly lower parasite burdens (P = 0.004) than the baboons in the P. knowlesi-only group and were protected from severe anemia. Coinfection was associated with increased spontaneous production of interleukin-6 (IL-6), suggesting an enhanced innate immune response, whereas animals infected with P. knowlesi alone failed to develop mitogen-driven tumor necrosis factor alpha and IL-10, indicating the inability to generate adequate protective and balancing immunoregulatory responses. These results indicate that chronic S. mansoni attenuates the severity of P. knowlesi coinfection in baboons by mechanisms that may enhance innate immunity to malaria.
| S-EPMC4862699 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background: The parasitic trematode Schistosoma mansoni is one of the major causative agents of human schistosomiasis, which afflicts 200 million people worldwide. Praziquantel is still the only drug used for schistosomiasis treatment and reduction in drug efficiency has prompting the search for new therapeutic compounds against this disease. Our group has demonstrated that heme crystallization into hemozoin (Hz) within S. mansoni gut is a major heme detoxification route involving lipid droplets in this process and acting as a potential chemotherapeutical target. In the present work, we investigated the effects of the antimalarial quinine (QN) in a murine schistosomiasis model by using a combination of biochemical, cell biology and molecular biology approaches. Methodology/Principal Findings: Treatment of S. mansoni-infected female Swiss mice with daily intraperitoneal injections of QN (75mg/kg/day) from 11th to 17th day after infection decreased not only total, males and females worm burden (46.2 %-51.0 %), eggs production, but also the granulomatous reaction to parasite eggs trapped in the liver. These effects correlated with a significant impairment of Hz production (40%) specifically in S. mansoni females, being parallel to remarkable ultrastructural changes in female worms, particularly in the gut epithelium. Microarray gene expression analysis indicated that QN treatment increased the expression of transcripts related to musculature, protein synthesis and repair mechanisms. Conclusions: The overall significant reduction in several disease burden parameters by QN treatment indicates that interference of Hz formation in S. mansoni is a valid chemotherapeutical target for development of new antischistosomal drugs. The perfused adult female worms were incubated with cold RNAlater solution (Ambion) and kept at 4 0C until RNA extraction. Total RNA was extracted using Trizol reagent (Invitrogen) according to the manufacture's instructions. RNA was quantified using Nanodrop ND-1000 UV/Vis spectrophotometer and its quality was assured with Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer, a micro fluidics-based electrophoresis platform. 1 μg total RNA from each sample was amplified using the T7-RNA polymerase based SuperScript Indirect RNA amplification system (Invitrogen) and subsequently 3 μg of aminoallyl-modified amplified RNA was labeled using Cy3 or Cy5 by indirect labeling (General Electric). Amplification and labeling were done according to manufacturer specifications. The Cy3 and Cy5 labeled samples were then combined, dried and re-suspended in hybridization buffer (50 % formamide, 25 % RNase free water and 25 % Microarray Hybridization buffer 4x) (General Electric). Pools of RNA from worms treated with QN were hybridized against RNA from control worms. In order to ensure the uniformity of data, all experiments were performed using slides from the same printing batch and dyes from the same lot. The same washing protocol was used and immediately after washing we scanned the slides using the same parameters. Technical and biological replicates were performed. Dye swap was employed in order to account for dye biases. A total of eight different replicated data values were obtained for each probe on the array. The samples were hybridized overnight to cDNA microarray slides containing 4,000 elements in duplicate (GEO accession: GPL3929) using ASP hybridization chambers (GE, USA) at 42 °C. Slides were washed once for 3 minutes in low stringency wash solution at 45 °C (1 x SSC + 0.2 % SDS), followed by one wash for 5 minutes in medium stringency wash solution (0.1 x SSC + 0.2%SDS) and one wash of 1 minute in high stringency wash solution (0.1 x SSC). Moreover, slides were air dried and scanned using a microarray dual channel laser scanner (GenePix 4000B, Molecular Devices, USA) at 5 μm resolution, 100 % laser power and PMT levels were adjusted in order to obtain similar average intensities of red and green signal. Data were extracted using Array Vision 8.0 program. To correct for systematic biases on the data originated from small differences in the labeling and/or detection efficiencies between the fluorescent dyes, expression ratios were logged (base 2) and normalized using a locally weighted linear regression (LOWESS) algorithm [60]. Normalized log2 (ratios) were further analyzed with the Significance Analysis of Microarrays tool (SAM) [61] using a 0.1 % false discovery rate (FDR) to find differentially expressed genes. The genes identified in the previous step were filtered using a 1.7 fold change cut-off in at least 4 out of the 8 data points. This step is critical in identifying more biological relevant changes. It is important to stress that the fold change filter was used after the identification of differentially expressed genes, and our results are not influenced by the potentially misleading effects caused by the use of arbitrary thresholds to trim data sets before significance testing .
2010-06-24 | E-GEOD-14751 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:BackgroundBiomphalaria pfeifferi is highly compatible with the widespread human-infecting blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni and transmits more cases of this parasite to people than any other snail species. For these reasons, B. pfeifferi is the world's most important vector snail for S. mansoni, yet we know relatively little at the molecular level regarding the interactions between B. pfeifferi and S. mansoni from early-stage sporocyst transformation to the development of cercariae.Methodology/principal findingsWe sought to capture a portrait of the response of B. pfeifferi to S. mansoni as it occurs in nature by undertaking Illumina dual RNA-Seq on uninfected control B. pfeifferi and three intramolluscan developmental stages (1- and 3-days post infection and patent, cercariae-producing infections) using field-derived west Kenyan specimens. A high-quality, well-annotated de novo B. pfeifferi transcriptome was assembled from over a half billion non-S. mansoni paired-end reads. Reads associated with potential symbionts were noted. Some infected snails yielded fewer normalized S. mansoni reads and showed different patterns of transcriptional response than others, an indication that the ability of field-derived snails to support and respond to infection is variable. Alterations in transcripts associated with reproduction were noted, including for the oviposition-related hormone ovipostatin and enzymes involved in metabolism of bioactive amines like dopamine or serotonin. Shedding snails exhibited responses consistent with the need for tissue repair. Both generalized stress and immune factors immune factors (VIgLs, PGRPs, BGBPs, complement C1q-like, chitinases) exhibited complex transcriptional responses in this compatible host-parasite system.SignificanceThis study provides for the first time a large sequence data set to help in interpreting the important vector role of the neglected snail B. pfeifferi in transmission of S. mansoni, including with an emphasis on more natural, field-derived specimens. We have identified B. pfeifferi targets particularly responsive during infection that enable further dissection of the functional role of these candidate molecules.
| S-EPMC5685644 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundSnails of the genus Biomphalaria are intermediate hosts of Schistosoma mansoni, the causative agent of the human intestinal schistosomiasis. Two Biomphalaria species (Biomphalaria pfeifferi and Biomphalaria camerunensis) are involved in the transmission in Cameroon, where the disease is present nationwide. However, difficulty in the identification of both vectors impedes proper assessment of the epidemiological burden caused by each species. To overcome this issue, we designed a PCR-based molecular diagnostic tool to improve the identification of these species.MethodsWe analyzed the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region of Biomphalaria ribosomal DNA (rDNA) using polymerase chain reaction amplification (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP).ResultsThe amplification of the ITS2 region of Biomphalaria snails resulted in a 490 bp fragment and produced two profiles for each species after digestion with the restriction enzyme Hpa II. The profile 1 (Bc-HpaII-1: 212-bp and 139-bp bands) for B. camerunensis, was common in all the sampling points; the profile 2 (Bc-HpaII-2: 212-bp and 189-bp bands), was only observed in the Lake Monoun Njindoun sampling site. Biomphalaria pfeifferi profile 1 (Bpf-HpaII-1: 211-bp and 128-bp bands) was common in most of B. pfeifferi sampling points; the profile 2 (Bpf-HpaII-2: 289-bp and 128-bp bands) was only observed in Mokolo (Far North Cameroon).The second restriction enzyme TaqαI, revealed three band profiles, Bc-TaqαI-1 (243-bp, 136-bp and 118-bp bands) and Bc-TaqαI-2 (244-bp, 136-bp and 99-bp) for B. camerunensis and Bpf-TaqαI-1 (242-bp, 135-bp and 107-bp bands) for B. pfeifferi. Sequencing analysis revealed the occurrence of six haplotypes for B. camerunensis and three haplotypes for B. pfeifferi. The level of gene flow was low and the Biomphalaria populations were not in demographic expansion according to neutrality tests (Tajima's D and Fu's Fs).ConclusionsThe PCR-RFLP technique revealed genetic diversity in Biomphalaria snails, and the combination with the morphological method could improve the identification of B. pfeifferi and B. camerunensis in Cameroon. This could help focus on the infection to evaluate the transmission risk with respect of the different species and to develop efficient and cost-effective control measures.
| S-EPMC7106826 | biostudies-literature