How to make a little worm pump like a big worm

LE STUDIUM Multidisciplinary Journal, 2020, 4, 8-11

Georg von Samson-Himmelstjerna1,2,3, Alexander P. Gerhard1, Jürgen Krücken1, Claude L. Charvet2, Cedric Neveu2, Abdallah Harmache2

 

1Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for Parasitology and Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Berlin, Germany;

2Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Université de Tours, Infectiologie et Santé Publique (ISP), Centre de Recherches Val de Loire, F-37380 Nouzilly , France

3LE STUDIUM Institute for Advanced Studies, 45000 Orléans, France

Abstract

Infections with parasitic helminths expose serious health threats to humans and animals alike. Prevention of disease is dependent on the effective treatment using anthelmintics. Unfortunately, anthelmintic resistance (AR) has evolved in many helminth species during the past decades and meanwhile poses a major constraint to established worm control approaches. This project aimed to improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which helminths, particularly the potentially deadly horse parasite Parascaris sp., become capable of withstanding drug treatment. To this end, Parascaris P-glycoproteins (Pgp), belonging to an important group of mediators of anthelmintic resistance, were introduced into the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans using the CRISPR/Cas9 technology. The resulting transgenic lines will subsequently be analyzed to functionally elucidate the role of putatively AR-associated Parascaris Pgp sequence polymorphisms.

Keywords

Caenorhabditis elegans
Parascaris sp.
Anthelmintic
Drug resistance
P-glycoprotein
macrocyclic lactones
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Le STUDIUM Multidisciplinary Journal