Echinostoma species are able to parasitize a wide range of both invertebrates and vertebrates, and because of this fact they are excellent models to study parasite-host interactions in the gastrointestinal helminthiasis.
Knowledge of the factors involved in the interactions between host and parasite are of significant importance to identify those specific targets that allow us to develop biomarkers useful in the diagnosis and treatment of these parasites, and in the development of effective vaccines to prevent these diseases, and in this context, in recent years and in collaboration with the Department of Parasitology, we are studying the parasite molecules involved in host-parasite interactions using the models mentioned above.
In our research group, by means of proteomic and immunodetection techniques, we identified the following molecules: actin, Hsp (heat-shock protein) -70, GAPDH, GST, aldolase and enolase, among others, in excretory/secretory extracts of E. Friedi and E. Caproni (Bernal et. al., 2006; Espert et. al., 2006).
Among the identified proteins, the enolase enzyme is able to induce significant immune responses, which supports the fact that they are secreted during infection, and may be especially important because helminth enolases bind plasminogen, suggesting a role in facilitating penetration into the host’s tissues (Jolodar et. al., 2003, Bernal et. al., 2004; Marcilla et. al., 2007; Ramajo-Hernández et. al., 2007).
In our group we have cloned the gene for enolase of E. Caproni, to produce it in a heterologous eukaryotic system as the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in order to characterize it structurally. We provide a strategy for identifying the various posttranslational modifications that generate additional enolase isoforms, trying to help to understanding the immunogenic process of this protein in the host and designing a useful diagnostic system of intestinal helminths.
Our research project is called "STUDY OF POSTTRANSLATIONAL MODIFICATIONS OF ECHINOSTOMA CAPRONI ENOLASE: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF INTESTINAL HELMINTHIASIS”