In vitro development of the human parasite Schistosoma
Research type
Research Study
Full title
In vitro development of the human parasite Schistosoma
IRAS ID
319400
Contact name
Jose Gabriel Rinaldi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Aberystwyth University
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Schistosomiasis affects more than 250 million people in Low and Middle-Income Countries, where more than 600 million are at risk. The disease, caused by infection with blood flukes in the genus Schistosoma, is associated with liver inflammation and fibrosis, or bladder and kidney pathology depending on the species. New control strategies are urgently needed to break the complete reliance on a single drug (praziquantel). Moreover, the threat of drug resistance is emerging.
Unlike most hermaphroditic flatworms, schistosomes have separate male and female individuals. A research imperative is to understand the unusual sexual biology of schistosomes because strategies to block life cycle transmission may be revealed. During its life cycle, the parasite uses two hosts: freshwater snails and humans. In the human phase, the parasites migrate through host tissues and circulate within blood vessels amidst the blood stream and various blood cells. During this phase the male and female parasites develop and differentiate into sexually-dimorphic individuals. The molecular players involved in the differentiation of monomorphic larvae into organisms with distinct sexual forms remain largely unexplored.
In this study, we aim at revealing key mediators underlying sexual dimorphism establishment. Experiments on parasites developing in vitro, under controlled conditions, where the parasites can be easily manipulated, selected and processed for downstream molecular analyses became essential. Hence, we will refine culture systems to facilitate schistosome development, including the sexual dimorphism in vitro establishment. We will employ human blood products, including red blood cells (RBC) and serum for maintaining schistosomes in the laboratory and to provide conditions as close to that of the natural host as possible. A widely used protocol for maintaining the parasites in the laboratory includes adding human red blood cells (RBC) and whole blood into the culture media containing human serum (see references PMID: 2577488; PMID: 7241277)
REC name
South East Scotland REC 01
REC reference
23/SS/0017
Date of REC Opinion
13 Feb 2023
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion