British Society For Parasitology Research Articles

Kinetoplastid cell biology and genetics, from the 2020 British Society for Parasitology Trypanosomiasis and Leishmaniasis symposium, Granada, Spain.

The British Society for Parasitology (BSP) holds a biannual symposium devoted to the kinetoplastids, and seeks to cover the full gamut of research into these important organisms, and alternates with the Woods Hole Kinetoplastid Molecular Cell Biology meeting that serves a similar community. While normally embedded within the main BSP Spring meeting, on several occasions the symposium has enjoyed the opportunity of being hosted on mainland Europe. In 2020, the BSP was fortunate to spend some time in Granada in Spain, where a superb meeting with excellent science in a spectacular setting was overshadowed by news of an emerging novel coronavirus. In this editorial, we hope to have captured some of that excellent science and to highlight aspects of the many great papers and reviews in this special issue, as well as provide a few images from the meeting, which we hope for this who attended will bring back some fond memories.

Microbial protein targets: towards understanding and intervention.

The rise of antimicrobial resistance, coupled with a lack of industrial focus on antimicrobial discovery over preceding decades, has brought the world to a crisis point. With both human and animal health set to decline due to increased disease burdens caused by near untreatable microbial pathogens, there is an urgent need to identify new antimicrobials. Central to this is the elucidation of new, robustly validated, drug targets. Informed by industrial practice and concerns, the use of both biological and chemical tools in validation is key. In parallel, repurposing approved drugs for use as antimicrobials may provide both new treatments and identify new targets, whilst improved understanding of pharmacology will help develop and progress good 'hits' with the required rapidity. In recognition of the need to increase research efforts in these areas, in 14-16 September 2017, the British Society for Parasitology (BSP) Autumn Symposium was hosted at Durham University with the title: Microbial Protein Targets: towards understanding and intervention. Staged in collaboration with the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Chemistry Biology Interface Division (CBID), the core aim was to bring together leading researchers working across disciplines to imagine novel approaches towards combating infection and antimicrobial resistance. Sessions were held on: 'Anti-infective discovery, an overview'; 'Omic approaches to target validation'; 'Genetic approaches to target validation'; 'Drug target structure and drug discovery'; 'Fragment-based approaches to drug discovery'; and 'Chemical approaches to target validation'. Here, we introduce a series of review and primary research articles from selected contributors to the Symposium, giving an overview of progress in understanding antimicrobial targets and developing new drugs. The Symposium was organized by Paul Denny (Durham) for the BSP and Patrick Steel (Durham) for RSC CBID.

One Health: parasites and beyond

The field of parasitism is broad, encompassing relationships between organisms where one benefits at the expense of another. Traditionally the discipline focuses on eukaryotes, with the study of bacteria and viruses complementary but distinct. Nonetheless, parasites vary in size and complexity from single celled protozoa, to enormous plants like those in the genus Rafflesia. Lifecycles range from obligate intracellular to extensive exoparasitism. Examples of parasites include high-profile medical and zoonotic pathogens such as Plasmodium, veterinary pathogens of wild and captive animals and many of the agents which cause neglected tropical diseases, stretching to parasites which infect plants and other parasites (e.g. Kikuchi et al. 2011; Hotez et al. 2014; Blake et al. 2015; Hemingway, 2015; Meekums et al. 2015; Sandlund et al. 2015). The breadth of parasitology has been matched by the variety of ways in which parasites are studied, drawing upon biological, chemical, molecular, epidemiological and other expertise. Despite such breadth bridging between disciplines has commonly been problematic, regardless of extensive encouragement from government agencies, peer audiences and funding bodies promoting multidisciplinary research. Now, progress in understanding and collaboration can benefit from establishment of the One Health concept (Zinsstag et al. 2012; Stark et al. 2015). One Health draws upon biological, environmental, medical, veterinary and social science disciplines in order to improve human, animal and environmental health, although it remains tantalizingly difficult to engage many relevant parties. For infectious diseases traditional divides have been exacerbated as the importance of wildlife reservoirs, climate change, food production systems and socio-economic diversity have been recognized but often not addressed in a multidisciplinary manner. In response the 2015 Autumn Symposium organized by the British Society for Parasitology (BSP; https://www.bsp.uk.net/home/) was focused on One Health, running under the title 'One Health: parasites and beyond…'. The meeting, held at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in Camden, London from September 14th to 15th, drew upon a blend of specialist parasitology reinforced with additional complementary expertise. Scientists, advocates, policy makers and industry representatives were invited to present at the meeting, promoting and developing One Health understanding with relevance to parasitology. The decision to widen the scope of the meeting to non-parasitological, but informative topics, is reflected in the diversity of the articles included in this special issue. A key feature of the meeting was encouragement of early career scientists, with more than 35% of the delegates registered as students and 25 posters.

British Society for Parasitology

Now boasting a healthy membership of more than 1,500 individuals, the British Society for Parasitology was formed in 1962 and is a window into the fascinating world of infectious diseases and parasites.

Emerging paradigms in anti-infective drug design

The need for new drugs to treat microbial infections is pressing. The great progress made in the middle part of the twentieth Century was followed by a period of relative inactivity as the medical needs relating to infectious disease in the wealthier nations receded. Growing realisation that anti-infectives are needed in many parts of the world, to treat neglected diseases as well as to combat the burgeoning risk of resistance to existing drugs, has galvanised a new wave of research into anti-microbial drugs. The transfer of knowledge from the Pharmaceutical industry relating to the importance of understanding how to target drugs successfully within the body, and improved understanding of how pathogens interact with their hosts, is driving a series of new paradigms in anti-infective drug design. Here we provide an overview of those processes as an introduction to a series of articles from experts in this area that emerged from a meeting entitled "Emerging Paradigms in Anti-Infective Drug Design" held in London on the 17th and 18th September 2012. The symposium was organised jointly by British Society for Parasitology (BSP) and the Biological & Medicinal Chemistry sector of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and held at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The symposium set out to cover all aspects of the identification of new therapeutic modalities for the treatment of neglected and tropical diseases. We aimed to bring together leading scientists from all the disciplines working in this field and cover the pharmacology, medicinal chemistry and drug delivery of potential new medicines. Sessions were held on: "Target diseases and targets for drugs", "Target based medicinal chemistry", "Bioavailability and chemistry", "Targeting intracellular microbes", "Alternative approaches and models", and "New anti-infectives - how do we get there?" This symposium was organised by Simon Croft (LSHTM) and Mike Barrett (University of Glasgow) for the BSP, and David Alker (David Alker Associates) and Andrew Stachulski (University of Liverpool) for the Biological & Medicinal Chemistry sector of the RSC.

Practical Exercises in Parasitology

edited by David W. Halton, Jerzey M. Behnke and Ian Marshall. Cambridge University Press, 2001, (£35.30) (hbk)(XVIII + 461 pages)ISBN 0 521 79104 9Practical Exercises in Parasitology describes 50 well-tried practical exercises that are used in teaching parasitology at the undergraduate level. This book does not attempt to cover the whole field of parasitology (e.g. the Arthropod parasites are not included), except for copepods on fish and Anopheles. The book presents very useful examples for practical classes in this discipline and the exercises cover a wide range of complexity. The layout of the book is simple and does not contain any fancy colour photographs of parasites, but includes drawings and photographs where appropriate.The book begins with general instructions on health and safety, good laboratory practice, gives guidance on how to write up exercises and provides the criteria recommended for assessing coursework. The book ends with an addendum containing a list of suppliers in the UK and the USA. Exercises are divided into seven chapters: (I) Observational Exercises on Parasites; (II) Ecology; (III) Physiology and Biochemistry; (IV) Pathology and Immunology; (V) Chemotherapy; (VI) Molecular Biology and, (VII) Behavior. The format for the exercises implies that concise and clear instructions for teachers and students must be given, that the necessary equipment, consumables and parasite sources are indicated, that expected results are presented in conjunction with ideas for further exploration, additional information and references. Detailed information on the parasites and their hosts is often lacking in the text, but this additional information can be found in the references cited. Virtually all exercises are on live parasites – this is obviously preferable to teaching on dead materials. However, it is doubtful whether ethics committees will always approve the necropsy of experimental animals (rodents) or wildlife (fish) for the sake of some of these exercises alone, because the expected results are available from the literature. However, this would not be a problem when live parasites are obtained from slaughtered farm animals or from necropsies performed for approved ongoing research projects.For most exercises, no previous training is expected which can be a disadvantage. For instance, the first exercises on molecular biology are just general exercises. Clearly, it is necessary to start with such exercises when the student has no background on molecular biology. Our experience with undergraduate medical biology students is that they already have had some exposure to molecular biology, and it is much more rewarding to start with exercises in which molecular biology is used as a tool in parasitology.The most important feature of this book is that it makes the fingers itch to try out the exercises, or similar ones better adapted to the local situation. The clear descriptions and the suggestions as to where materials can be obtained make it easy to adopt most of the exercises into the teaching programs. The exercises are not comprehensive and more exercises can be added to this book.In summary, I believe that this book will be a very useful acquisition for departments involved in teaching parasitology. It was a good initiative of the British Society for Parasitology to enable publication of this book, and the principles behind it could be extended by accumulating other exercises in the same format into a database that is accessible to anybody involved in teaching parasitology.

New Insights into Platyhelminth Systematics and Evolution

The ‘Interrelationships of the Platyhelminthes’ symposium, held 14–16 July 1999 at The Linnean Society of London, UK was organised by Tim Littlewood and Rod Bray and sponsored by the Linnean Society, The Systematics Association and the British Society for Parasitology. Participants from over 24 countries convened, appropriately, at the site where the theory of evolution by natural selection was first presented in 1858. Much of the work presented will form the basis of a peer-reviewed, edited volume of the same title scheduled to appear in early 2000, published by Taylor & Francis. The author gratefully acknowledges the support of a Marshall-Sherfield Fellowship (Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission, UK) during the writing of this report.

The Spirit of Malaria: 100 Years of Parasites and Policies

In keeping with the 100th anniversary of Ronald Ross’s discovery of the malaria parasite in the mosquito vector, the opening talks at this 10th BSP (British Society for Parasitology) Malaria Meeting were on mosquito transmission. Prof. Fotis Kafatos (EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany) presented his extensive work on mosquito immune responses to parasite infection. Continuing the theme, Will Roeffen (Academic Hospital, Nijmegen, The Netherlands) described preliminary results using phage display techniques to identify monoclonal antibodies that block malaria transmission. On mosquito behaviour, Rob Anderson (Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada) presented work showing that infected mosquitoes exhibit respectively less or more persistence in biting than do uninfected mosquitoes, depending upon whether they are infected with oocysts or sporozoites. Such changes in biting rate and survival strategies have significant implications on traditional models of mosquito transmission. A tribute to Ronald Ross from Ted Nye, his biographer1,2, concluded the session.

Exploring Parasite Genomes: The Way Forward

The meeting ‘Exploring Parasite Genomes’, held at the City University, London, UK, 11 September 1998, was convened by David Rollinson and Jenefer Blackwell. It was made possible by generous support from The British Society for Parasitology, The Wellcome Trust and Pfizer Ltd; 130 delegates attended.

Trypanosomiasis and Leishmaniasis: Between the Idea and the Reality of Control

The International Symposium on Trypanosomiasis and Leishmaniasis, organized by the British Society for Parasitology and the University Victor Segalen, Bordeaux 2, France, was held at Le Palatium, Arcachon, France 18–21 April, 1998.

Ligula intestinalis: interactions with the pituitary-gonadal axis of its fish host

I was delighted to be able to join with so many friends and colleagues, in writing this short paper to mark the retirement of Donald Lee. There are many outstanding milestones in Donald's career. However, I thought that I could perhaps draw special attention to his long and distinguished association with the British Society for Parasitology (BSP), and the journal, Parasitology. He was President of the BSP between 1978 and 1980 and, in recognition of his service to the Society and contributions to the discipline of parasitology, was elected an Honorary Member in 1980. Donald has also had a long association with Parasitology, as a member of the Editorial Board and as a frequent contributor. His first paper in the journal was published in 1958; it described the occurrence of Syngamus sp. in a fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) that had been accidentally killed. At the time of writing, his most recent publication, but I suspect not his last, was a biochemical study on proteins produced by Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, Nematodims battus and Ascaridia galli (Foster & Lee, 1996). Of course, Donald has published in many other journals and authored several books. However, if one considers only those papers published in Parasitology, they provide a record of intellectual vigour and curiosity that has remained undiminished throughout his career.

Acknowledgements

The British Society for Parasitology gratefully acknowledges financial support for this meeting from the following organisations:

Parasites and Human Disease

The fourteen papers in this excellent book were presented at an international symposium organized by the Linnean Society of London and the British Society for Parasitology, held at Keele University 12–13 July 1984. The papers examine various aspects of host genetics, parasite genetics, population genetics, theoretical ecology and experimental and field epidemiology. Hostparasite systems range from bacteria and phage to humans and helminth infections.The papers are generally very well written, with clearly stated hypotheses and a minimum of jargon. Some of parasitologists' dearest assumptions are examined: that host susceptibility to infection may be a genetically determined, qualitative response (i.e., susceptible or resistant); that parasites may act as agents of selection upon their hosts; that parasites evolve to become commensals. Articles that are directly applicable to the epidemiology of human pathogens are by Rollinson and Southgate on genetic variability of schistosome and snail populations; by Tait on protein variation in parasitic protozoa; by Luzzatto, Usanga and Modiano on genetic resistance of humans to Plasmodium falciparum; and by Anderson and Crombie on age-intensity and age-prevalence profiles of Schistosoma mansoni infections in snails and mice.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:Aspects of Fish Parasitology. Edited by Angela E. R. Taylor and R. Muller. SYMPOSIA OF THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR PARASITOLOGY. Vol. 8.

Evolution of Parasites

This is a series of four papers delivered in November 1964 before the British Society for Parasitology. The first is by J. R. Baker on the evolution of parasitic protozoa (in which, of necessity, a considerable amount of attention is paid to those affecting man). The second deals with the evolution of parasite-arthropod vector systems and is by P. F. Mattingly, who is concerned essentially with arthropods as vectors. The third is by J. Llewellyn who discusses the evolution of parasitic platyhelminths while the final author, W. G. Inglis, considers the pattern of evolution in parasitic nematodes. All four papers show a wide acquaintanceship with the literature on a highly imaginative and speculative subject and provide most stimulating reading, although it is doubtful if any parasitologist will agree completely with everything that has been said in them. We are still far from reaching a final word on what is an enormously complex subject.

Evolution of Parasites: Third Symposium of the British Society for Parasitology

Evolution of Parasites: Third Symposium of the British Society for Parasitology

Host‐Parasite Relationships in Invertebrate Hosts: Second Symposium of the British Society for Parasitology

Host‐Parasite Relationships in Invertebrate Hosts: Second Symposium of the British Society for Parasitology