Project description:Schistosoma mansoni is the major causative agent of schistosomiasis in the Americas. This parasite takes advantage from host signaling molecules such as cytokines and hormones to complete its development inside the host. TNF-α is the most important cytokine involved in the inflammatory response when cercaria, the infective stage, penetrates the human skin and a severe inflammatory response is started. In this work the authors describe the complete sequence of a possible TNF-α receptor in S. mansoni and detect that the receptor is most highly expressed in cercaria among all life cycle stages. In an attempt to mimic the situation at the site of skin penetration cercariae have been mechanically transformed in vitro into schistosomula and immediately exposed to human TNF-α . Exposure of these early schistosomula to the human hormone caused a large-scale change in the expression of parasite genes. Exposure of adult worms to human TNF-α caused gene expression changes as well, although the set of parasite altered genes was entirely different from that of schistosomula. This work increases the number of known signaling pathways of the parasite, and opens new perspectives into understanding the molecular components of TNF-α response as well as possibly interfering with parasite-host interaction.
Project description:Schistosoma mansoni is the major causative agent of schistosomiasis in the Americas. This parasite takes advantage from host signaling molecules such as cytokines and hormones to complete its development inside the host. TNF-α is the most important cytokine involved in the inflammatory response when cercaria, the infective stage, penetrates the human skin and a severe inflammatory response is started. In this work the authors describe the complete sequence of a possible TNF-α receptor in S. mansoni and detect that the receptor is most highly expressed in cercaria among all life cycle stages. In an attempt to mimic the situation at the site of skin penetration cercariae have been mechanically transformed in vitro into schistosomula and immediately exposed to human TNF-α . Exposure of these early schistosomula to the human hormone caused a large-scale change in the expression of parasite genes. Exposure of adult worms to human TNF-α caused gene expression changes as well, although the set of parasite altered genes was entirely different from that of schistosomula. This work increases the number of known signaling pathways of the parasite, and opens new perspectives into understanding the molecular components of TNF-α response as well as possibly interfering with parasite-host interaction.
