Breakthrough in the fight against the world's most widespread parasite

Researchers from LIFE together with colleagues from other institutions have just mapped the entire genome of the common roundworm. This is a scientific breakthrough that paves the way for new vaccines and pharmaceuticals to prevent and treat the parasite that each year infects millions of people with roundworm. The research results are published today in Nature.

 

Parasitic diseases have a devastating, long-term impact on human

health, welfare and food production worldwide. More than two

billion people are infected with geohelminths, including the roundworms

Ascaris (common roundworm), Necator and Ancylostoma

(hookworms), and Trichuris (whipworm), mainly in developing or

impoverished nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America1. In

humans, the diseases caused by these parasites result in about

135,000 deaths annually, with a global burden comparable with that

of malaria or tuberculosis in disability-adjusted life years1. Ascaris

alone infects around 1.2 billion people and, in children, causes

nutritional deficiency, impaired physical and cognitive development

and, in severe cases, death2. Ascaris also causes major production

losses in pigs owing to reduced growth, failure to thrive and

mortality2. The Ascaris–swine model makes it possible to study the

parasite, its relationship with the host, and ascariasis at the molecular

level. To enable such molecular studies, we report the 273 megabase

draft genome of Ascaris suum and compare it with other

nematode genomes. This genome has low repeat content (4.4%)

and encodes about 18,500 protein-coding genes. Notably, the

A. suum secretome (about 750 molecules) is rich in peptidases

linked to the penetration and degradation of host tissues, and an

assemblage of molecules likely to modulate or evade host immune

responses. This genome provides a comprehensive resource to the

scientific community and underpins the development of new and

urgently needed interventions (drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests)

against ascariasis and other nematodiases.

 

Read the rest of the article in Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v479/n7374/pdf/nature10553.pdf