Project description:The availability of high-quality data of helminth genomes provided over the last two decades has supported and accelerated large-scale ‘omics studies and, consequently, the achievement of a more in depth molecular characterisation of a number of pathogens. Strongyloides spp. are no less and since their genome was made available transcriptomics has been rather frequently applied to investigate gene expression regulation across their life cycle. Strongyloides proteomics characterisation has instead been somehow neglected, with only a few reports performing high-throughput or targeted analyses associated with protein identification by tandem mass spectrometry. Such investigations are however necessary in order to discern important aspects associated with human strongyloidiasis, including understanding parasite biology and the mechanisms of host-parasite interaction, but also to identify novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets. In this review article we will give an overview of the published proteomics studies investigating strongyloidiasis at different levels, spanning from the characterisation of the somatic proteome and excretory/secretory products of different parasite stages to the investigation of potentially immunogenic proteins. Moreover, in the effort to try to start filling the current gap in host-proteomics, we will also present the first serum proteomics analysis in patients suffering from human strongyloidiasis.
Project description:Strongyloides ratti is a common gastro-intestinal parasite of the rat. The adult parasites are female only, about 2mm long and live in the mucosa of the small intestine. These parasites produce eggs that pass out of the host in its faeces. In the environment infective larval stages develop either directly or after a facultative sexual free-living adult generation. Infective larvae infect hosts by skin penetration.S. ratti is the laboratory analogue of the parasite of humans, S. stercoralis. S. stercoralis is a wide-spread parasite of humans, occurring principally in the tropics and sub-tropics: some 100-200 million people are infected worldwide. Infection of immunosuppressed individuals can result in disseminated strongyloidiasis, in which worms occur throughout the body. This can be fatal unless anti-Strongyloides therapy is given. Other species of Strongyloides parasitise a wide range of vertebrates. As part of the Strongyloides ratti genome project we are profiling the transcriptome of the parasite across its life cycle using RNA-Seq.. This data is part of a pre-publication release. For information on the proper use of pre-publication data shared by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (including details of any publication moratoria), please see http://www.sanger.ac.uk/datasharing/