Studies on the Survival of Angiostrongylus cantonensis Fifth-Stage Larvae in Permissive and Non-Permissive Hosts at Transcriptomic and Proteomic Levels

Angiostrongyliasis is an important zoonosis in Taiwan. In the permissive hosts (rats), the fifth-stage larvae (L5) of Angiostrongylus cantonensis in the brain penetrate the blood brain barrier, migrate to the right ventricle and pulmonary arteries, and develop into adults. However, L5 remain in the subaranoid cavity and cause eosinophilic meningitis and eosinophilic meningoencephalitis in non-permissive hosts such as humans and mice. In our previous studies, there are significant differences between L5 from SD rats and ICR mice in survival duration, average length, and injuries to the hosts. The present study is going to understand the differences in development, survival, and pathogenic mechanisms at the transcriptomics and proteomics levels. The expressions of genes and proteins of these two L5 were compared with the new generation sequencing (NGS) and two-dimensional protein electrophoresis (2-DE) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) technologies. The results will be helpful on developing effective diagnostic techniques and therapeutic strategies of angiostrongyliasis. This study is a three-year project. Establishment of NGS reference sequences database of A. cantonensis L5 from SD rats and ICR mice is the main theme of the first year. The database is able to enhance the probability of protein identification. Moreover, genes with different expressions are confirmed with real-time polymerase chain reaction and then underwent functional annotation to investigate the differences in the survival of these two L5. In the second year, differences in the protein expressions between L5 from the two kinds of hosts were compared with analytical technologies of proteomics. 2-DE is employed to identify protein expression profiles to select proteins with significantly different expressions. Sequences of these proteins are then determined by MS. In the third year, the amino acid sequences of two types of L5 are matched with the NGS database established in the first year to confirm the protein sequence and identity. The functional annotation of these proteins should be helpful in the investigation of the survival of L5 between permissive hosts and non-permissive hosts. Moreover, matching of gene and protein expressions is also useful for the understanding of the mechanisms in the regulation of gene and protein expressions.

Project ID:PC10007-1152
External Project ID:NSC100-2320-B182-013