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 Î¼g total RNA from each sample was amplified using the T7-RNA polymerase based SuperScript Indirect RNA amplification system (Invitrogen) and subsequently 3 Î¼g 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 Â°C. Slides were washed once for 3 minutes in low stringency wash solution at 45 Â°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 Î¼m 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 .

Project description:Background: Treatment and morbidity control of schistosomiasis relies on a single drug, praziquantel. Therefore, there is a pressing need to explore the effects of PZQ on the parasites at the molecular level and to pursue alternative and/or or synergistic drugs against schistosomiasis. Methodology: We used a custom-designed Schistosoma mansoni oligo-microarray to explore the effects of a sublethal dose of praziquantel on S. mansoni adult worms’ gene expression. We used functional analysis of gene interaction networks to identify differentially expressed genes that are known targets of other drugs already tested in humans for diverse disease conditions. Omeprazole, a proton pump inhibitor drug that is widely prescribed, was tested in combination with praziquantel. We comparatively assessed the efficacy of praziquantel or omeprazole alone and in combination against S. mansoni adult worms in vitro over a period of 120 hours. Principal Findings: We identified sets of genes that were affected by praziquantel on both paired and unpaired females, however with opposite gene expression patterns (up-regulated in paired and down-regulated in unpaired females), indicating that the transcriptomics changes induced by praziquantel are heavily influenced by the mating status. We also identified genes that were similarly affected by praziquantel in males and females. The use of sublethal doses of praziquantel together with omeprazole showed a significantly enhanced worm mortality in vitro compared to praziquantel alone, thus evidencing a synergic effect. Conclusions: Functional analysis of gene interaction networks is an important approach to identify genes whose expression is affected by one drug and that are at the same time known targets of other drugs already tested in humans for diverse disease conditions, thus pointing the latter as possible synergic drugs. Combined treatment with omeprazol increases the efficacy of praziquantel against S. mansoni adult worms in vitro, and additional in vivo studies are warranted.

Project description:Background: Treatment and morbidity control of schistosomiasis relies on a single drug, praziquantel. Therefore, there is a pressing need to explore the effects of PZQ on the parasites at the molecular level and to pursue alternative and/or or synergistic drugs against schistosomiasis. Methodology: We used a custom-designed Schistosoma mansoni oligo-microarray to explore the effects of a sublethal dose of praziquantel on S. mansoni adult worms’ gene expression. We used functional analysis of gene interaction networks to identify differentially expressed genes that are known targets of other drugs already tested in humans for diverse disease conditions. Omeprazole, a proton pump inhibitor drug that is widely prescribed, was tested in combination with praziquantel. We comparatively assessed the efficacy of praziquantel or omeprazole alone and in combination against S. mansoni adult worms in vitro over a period of 120 hours. Principal Findings: We identified sets of genes that were affected by praziquantel on both paired and unpaired females, however with opposite gene expression patterns (up-regulated in paired and down-regulated in unpaired females), indicating that the transcriptomics changes induced by praziquantel are heavily influenced by the mating status. We also identified genes that were similarly affected by praziquantel in males and females. The use of sublethal doses of praziquantel together with omeprazole showed a significantly enhanced worm mortality in vitro compared to praziquantel alone, thus evidencing a synergic effect. Conclusions: Functional analysis of gene interaction networks is an important approach to identify genes whose expression is affected by one drug and that are at the same time known targets of other drugs already tested in humans for diverse disease conditions, thus pointing the latter as possible synergic drugs. Combined treatment with omeprazol increases the efficacy of praziquantel against S. mansoni adult worms in vitro, and additional in vivo studies are warranted. Two-condition experiment, PZQ-treated vs. untreated . Biological replicates: 2 with dye-swap

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Interference of hemozoin formation in Schistosoma mansoni by quinine reduces experimental schistosomiasis

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