Echinococcus granulosus: molecules involved in neurotransmission and development.

CAMICIA F; CUCHER M; PRADA L; MACCHIAROLI N; KAMENETZKY L; ROSENZVIT MC

Belo Horizonte

Workshop; First Flatworm Genomes Meeting; 2012

Flatworm DB Consorcium

E. granulosus life cycle involves definitive and intermediate hosts. The adult parasite develops in the intestine of the definitive host and the hydatid cyst (metacestode), that contains protoscoleces develops in the viscera of the intermediate host. Due to safety reasons and material availability, most of our research was done on the metacestode stage. However, it is important to obtain transcriptomic data from other stages. E. granulosus shows remarkable developmental plasticity .This feature plus the existence of strains adapted to particular hosts makes E. granulosus an model for development studies. We developed in vitro cultures to be able to study parasite development. Starting with pig strain protoscoleces, we observed differentiation towards strobilar stage (pre-adult worms) by co-cultivation with rat hepatome cells and differentiation towards vesicular direction obtaining pre-microcysts by co-culture with cos 7 cells. The models allowed to analyse the ontogeny of the serotoninergic nervous system. We observed a higher level of serotoninergic reactivity when the parasite develops to the strobilar direction. We used the Worm Microtracker (Simonetta and Golombeck, 2007) to analyse the effect of serotonin and inhibitors of its transporters and receptors on parasite motility. This system would be very useful for drug screening. We used the in vitro, and also in vivo models, to study the regulation of expression by microRNAs and showed for the first time that this mechanism exist in Echinoccus spp. The models and systems developed or adapted to cestodes in our lab will be very useful for providing material for transcriptomics, proteomics and post genomic analyses in the frame of the FlatDB.