Abstract
Soil-transmitted helminths (STH) affect hundreds of millions worldwide and are some of the most important neglected tropical diseases in terms of morbidity. Due to the difficulty in studying STH human infections, rodent models have become increasingly used, mainly because of their similarities in life cycle. Ascaris suum and Trichuris muris have been proven appropriate and low maintenance models for the study of ascariasis and trichuriasis. In the case of hookworms, despite most of the murine models do not fully reproduce the life cycle of Necator americanus, their proteomic similarity makes them highly suitable for the development of novel vaccine candidates and for the study of hookworm biological features. Furthermore, these models have been helpful in elucidating some basic aspects of our immune system, and are currently being used by numerous researchers to develop novel molecules with immunomodulatory proteins. Herein we review the similarities in the proteomic composition between Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, Heligmosomoides polygyrus bakeri and Trichuris muris and their respective human counterpart with a focus on the vaccine candidates and immunomodulatory proteins being currently studied.
Highlights
Infection by soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), some of the most common neglected tropical parasites in the world, affects mainly low and middle-income countries (Brooker, 2010)
This species was found to be able to infect mice and to follow a similar infection behaviour as the one observed in its natural hosts (Slotved et al, 1998), and further research identified mouse strains with different compatibility, providing a convenient model to investigate the basis of Ascaris biology and for the development of vaccine candidates (Lewis et al, 2007; Deslyper et al, 2019)
It is noteworthy the low number of sperm-coating protein (SCP)/ TAPS proteins identified in the T. muris secretome compared to parasites from clade V, which agrees with previous observations where this family of proteins is significantly expanded in clades IVa and V but not in clade I (Wilbers et al, 2018; International Helminth Genomes Consortium, 2019)
Summary
Infection by soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), some of the most common neglected tropical parasites in the world, affects mainly low and middle-income countries (Brooker, 2010). The related species A. suum is a natural parasite of pigs; this animal model has not been widely used because of its cost, large size and difficult husbandry (Holland, 2013) This species was found to be able to infect mice and to follow a similar infection behaviour as the one observed in its natural hosts (Slotved et al, 1998), and further research identified mouse strains with different compatibility (e.g. the susceptible C57BL/ 6 and the resistant CBA/Ca strains), providing a convenient model to investigate the basis of Ascaris biology and for the development of vaccine candidates (Lewis et al, 2007; Deslyper et al, 2019). This analysis provides the first step towards a rational selection of the most appropriate model for the analysis of a particular protein candidate; ideally, a combined approach integrating different transcriptomic, proteomic, lipidomic and metabolomic information will provide a more comprehensive picture of the suitability of a particular model
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