Project description:Parasitic infections with the hookworms Ancylostoma ceylanicum and Necator americanus are a significant global health burden and current hookworm infection management approaches are limited by modest drug efficacy, costs, risk of reinfection and drug resistance. Subunit vaccines based on proteins excreted and secreted (ES) by hookworms that impart sufficient efficacy to reduce worm numbers and associated disease burden is a promising management strategy to overcome these limitations. However, existing studies on the ES proteome of hookworms have mainly described proteins derived from the adult life stage which may preclude the opportunity to target larvae-specific parasitic processes. In this project, we use high resolution mass spectrometry to identify and compare ES proteins from the L3 stage as well as the adult stage of N. americanus and A. ceylanicum respectively.
Project description:In the current project we have carried out the first proteogenomic analysis of a parasitic helminth. This has allowed us to significantly improve the genome annotation and provide a robust characterisation of the ES proteome from the adult N. americanus. Our findings show important information on key families of proteins with both known and unknown functions which may be instrumental for host-parasite interactions, parasite survival and immune regulation. Description of these proteins is useful for informing future identification of vaccine and drug targets, diagnostics and novel therapeutics for treating autoimmune and allergic diseases.
