Characterization of the major pseudocoelomic proteins of the giant kidney worm, Dioctophyme renale.

NILDA RADMAN; NAHILI GIORELLO1; B. CÓRSICO; MARCOS BUTTI; FRANCHINI GR

Conferencia; Parasitic Helminths: New Perspectives in Biology and Infection; 2018

Dioctophyma renale,commonlyknownas thegiantkidneywormdevelopsin,andcompletelydestroys mammalian kidneys, and is thereby a debilitating and potentially lethal parasite ofhumans, domestic animals and endangered wildlife. Despite the importance and threat forhumans of this parasitic disease there is little information about the molecular bases of thisorganism (e.g. genome and proteome). Among domestic animals it is particularly pathogenicand common in dogs that live close to rivers and the infection is diagnosed only by urineanalysis, ultrasonography, surgery, or at necropsy.Moreover, although the parasite is usuallylocatedinoneof thekidneys,wormsmayalsodevelop toadulthoodinsitesother than theseorgans,suchas theabdominalcavity,subcutaneous tissues,etc.Given this,currentdiagnosticmethodsareofpoorsensitivity,frequentlygivingfalsenegativeresults.Inthisregard,recentlypublisheddatashowtheexistenceofsolubleantigensfromtheesophagusofD.renale mayhelpto determine infections in dogs. Our work is aimed at discoveringspecific proteins from D.renale thatmightbeusefulasnewdiagnosticmarkers for theiruseindogsandpotentiallyinhumans. So far, we characterised the soluble proteins of pseudocelomic fluid (PCF) of adultparasites. Two proteins, P17 and P44, dominate the PCF of bothmale and females. P17 is of16,622Dabymassspectrometry,andaccountsfortheintenseredcolouroftheadultparasites.Itmayfunctiontocarryorscavengeoxygenandberelatedtothe?nemoglobins?foundinothernematodeclades.P44isof44,460Daandwasfoundtoassociatewithfattyacids.Bothproteinswerestudiedbyimmunoassays incomparisonwithesophagusproteinstotest theirpotentialasdiagnosticmarkers.Interestingly,whileP44wasfoundtobeimmunogenicinthedogsampled,P17wasnot