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Acta Tropica Nov 2021Paragonimiasis is an important foodborne parasitic disease. Over 50 species of Paragonimus have been reported worldwide, and China has the widest distribution and... (Review)
Review
Paragonimiasis is an important foodborne parasitic disease. Over 50 species of Paragonimus have been reported worldwide, and China has the widest distribution and largest number of species. The detection of Paragonimus metacercariae from second intermediate hosts has been reported in 22 provinces and municipalities. The most frequently reported species are P. westermani, P. skrjabini, P. heterotremus and Euparagonimus cenocopiosus. In this review, we collected and reviewed relevant reports on the detection of Paragonimus metacercariae in second intermediate hosts from 1937 to 2020 from all areas of China. We provide an updated and current summary of Paragonimus species and their hosts in China. Data on the geographical range, species distribution, and second intermediate host species of Paragonimus were extracted. ArcGIS10.2 software was used to generate distribution maps of Paragonimus for four time periods: 1937-1990, 1991-2005, 2006-2020 and 1937-2020. We analyzed the geographic and spatiotemporal dynamics of Paragonimus prevalence in natural foci and provided a basis for further research and paragonimiasis prevention strategies in China.
Topics: Animals; China; Disease Vectors; Metacercariae; Paragonimiasis; Paragonimus
PubMed: 34389330
DOI: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2021.106094 -
Parasitology Sep 2022Foodborne trematodes (FBT) of public health significance include liver flukes ( and ), lung flukes ( and several other spp.) and intestinal flukes, which include... (Review)
Review
Foodborne trematodes (FBT) of public health significance include liver flukes ( and ), lung flukes ( and several other spp.) and intestinal flukes, which include heterophyids ( and ), echinostomes ( and ) and miscellaneous species, including and . These trematode infections are distributed worldwide but occur most commonly in Asia. The global burden of FBT diseases has been estimated at about 80 million, however, this seems to be a considerable underestimate. Their life cycle involves a molluscan first intermediate host, and a second intermediate host, including freshwater fish, crustaceans, aquatic vegetables and freshwater or brackish water gastropods and bivalves. The mode of human infection is the consumption of the second intermediate host under raw or improperly cooked conditions. The major pathogenesis of and spp. infection includes inflammation of the bile duct which leads to cholangitis and cholecystitis, and in a substantial number of patients, serious complications, such as liver cirrhosis and cholangiocarcinoma, may develop. In lung fluke infections, cough, bloody sputum and bronchiectasis are the most common clinical manifestations. However, lung flukes often migrate to extrapulmonary sites, including the brain, spinal cord, skin, subcutaneous tissues and abdominal organs. Intestinal flukes can induce inflammation in the intestinal mucosa, and they may at times undergo extraintestinal migration, in particular, in immunocompromised patients. In order to control FBT infections, eating foods after proper cooking is strongly recommended.
Topics: Animals; Echinostoma; Fascioliasis; Heterophyidae; Humans; Inflammation; Trematoda; Trematode Infections
PubMed: 35591777
DOI: 10.1017/S0031182022000725 -
Journal of Parasitic Diseases :... Sep 2021Paragonimiasis, the disease caused by , is transmitted primarily by freshwater crabs in the Philippines. Human infection has been recorded, but there is a dearth of...
Paragonimiasis, the disease caused by , is transmitted primarily by freshwater crabs in the Philippines. Human infection has been recorded, but there is a dearth of published information on the extent of infection in animal reservoirs, particularly in crabs and snails. This study aimed to investigate the infection status and risk factors of in freshwater crabs and melaniid snails collected in an endemic village along Cadacan River in Irosin, Sorsogon, where human cases of paragonimiasis were previously reported. A total of 246 freshwater crabs (118 females, 128 males) were dissected, and the gills, muscles, gonads, and viscera were examined for the presence of metacercariae; of which, 41.87% were found infected. The metacercariae were recovered from the gills (100%) and muscle tissues (7.3%) of infected crabs. Male crabs were more likely to be infected (49.22%) than female crabs (33.90%) ( < 0.05). Moreover, 70.87% of crabs showed low parasite intensity levels at ≤ 30 metacercariae/g tissue. A negative weak correlation was observed between parasite intensity and crab weight and carapace length, i.e., highly infected crabs were found to be smaller in size. Meanwhile, only 12% of the 150 melaniid snails collected were positive with cercariae with and as the most infected species. Household survey conducted revealed that some knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the locals contribute to the sustained transmission of the parasite in this endemic area. These findings revealed that is still prevalent among intermediate hosts and that some social and environmental factors contributed to the sustained parasite transmission in this endemic community.
PubMed: 34475643
DOI: 10.1007/s12639-020-01340-3 -
Parasites & Vectors Sep 2016Paragonimiasis is an important and widespread neglected tropical disease. Fifteen Paragonimus species are human pathogens, but two of these, Paragonimus westermani and...
BACKGROUND
Paragonimiasis is an important and widespread neglected tropical disease. Fifteen Paragonimus species are human pathogens, but two of these, Paragonimus westermani and P. skrjabini, are responsible for the bulk of human disease. Despite their medical and economic significance, there is limited information on the gene content and expression of Paragonimus lung flukes.
RESULTS
The transcriptomes of adult P. westermani and P. skrjabini were studied with deep sequencing technology. Approximately 30 million reads per species were assembled into 21,586 and 25,825 unigenes for P. westermani and P. skrjabini, respectively. Many unigenes showed homology with sequences from other food-borne trematodes, but 1,217 high-confidence Paragonimus-specific unigenes were identified. Analyses indicated that both species have the potential for aerobic and anaerobic metabolism but not de novo fatty acid biosynthesis and that they may interact with host signaling pathways. Some 12,432 P. westermani and P. skrjabini unigenes showed a clear correspondence in bi-directional sequence similarity matches. The expression of shared unigenes was mostly well correlated, but differentially expressed unigenes were identified and shown to be enriched for functions related to proteolysis for P. westermani and microtubule based motility for P. skrjabini.
CONCLUSIONS
The assembled transcriptomes of P. westermani and P. skrjabini, inferred proteins, and extensive functional annotations generated for this project (including identified primary sequence similarities to various species, protein domains, biological pathways, predicted proteases, molecular mimics and secreted proteins, etc.) represent a valuable resource for hypothesis driven research on these medically and economically important species.
Topics: Animals; Biological Evolution; Brachyura; Gene Expression Regulation; Genetic Variation; Helminth Proteins; Host-Parasite Interactions; Metacercariae; Paragonimus; RNA, Helminth; Transcriptome
PubMed: 27619014
DOI: 10.1186/s13071-016-1785-x -
IDCases 2022In 1936, Löeffler first recognized the association between a distinctive form of severe heart failure and marked eosinophilia. Most cases are caused by either parasitic...
In 1936, Löeffler first recognized the association between a distinctive form of severe heart failure and marked eosinophilia. Most cases are caused by either parasitic infections or drugs; however, no cause has been identified in one-third of the patients [1]. This report presents a rare case of Löeffler's syndrome caused by the parasite Paragonimus westermani.
PubMed: 35127453
DOI: 10.1016/j.idcr.2022.e01427 -
International Journal of Infectious... Aug 2023
Topics: Animals; Humans; Paragonimus westermani; Mediastinal Cyst; Paragonimiasis
PubMed: 37150353
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2023.05.001 -
Infectious Diseases of Poverty Oct 2018Paragonimiasis, caused by helminths of the genus Paragonimus spp., is a neglected tropical disease. Human suffering from paragonimiasis is often misunderstood and its... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Paragonimiasis, caused by helminths of the genus Paragonimus spp., is a neglected tropical disease. Human suffering from paragonimiasis is often misunderstood and its quantification by the disability weight of the disability-adjusted life years largely varies in different global burden of disease (GBD) estimates. This paper is to systematically review clinical paragonimiasis cases and requantify the disability weight of human paragonimiasis.
METHODS
A systematic analysis was conducted using articles from the following databases: PubMed, Institute for Scientific Information Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, the Chinese scientific journal databases Wanfang Data and CQVIP, Africa Journal Online, and the System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe. Search terms were the combination of "paragonim*" with "clinical" or "infection". Only articles fulfilling the following conditions were recruited for this study: the occurrence of clinical signs and symptoms of paragonimiasis in human beings were reported; diagnosis was confirmed; no comorbidities were reported; the reviewed clinical cases or epidemiological findings were not already included in any other articles. The information and frequencies of paragonimiasis outcomes from included articles using predefined data fields were extracted two times by two separate individuals. Outcome disability weights were selected mainly from the GBD 2004 and GBD 2013 datasets. Frequencies and disability weights of paragonimiasis outcomes were modelled into a decision tree using the additive approach and multiplicative approach, respectively. Monte Carlo simulations were run 5000 times for an uncertainty analysis.
RESULTS
The disability weight estimates of paragonimiasis were simulated with 5302 clinical cases from 80 general articles. The overall disability weight was estimated at 0.1927 (median 0.1956) with a 95% uncertainty interval (UI) of 0.1632-0.2378 using the additive approach, and 0.1791 (median 0.1816) with a 95% UI of 0.1530-0.2182 using the multiplicative approach. The simulated disability weights of Paragonimus westermani cases were higher than that of P. skrjabini cases. Lung outcomes and headache were the top two contributors to disability weight for both species.
CONCLUSIONS
The use of paragonimiasis disability weight needs to be reconsidered with regard to availability of morbidity data and species variation. Calculating the disease burden of paragonimiasis requires further modification and thus has considerable implications for public health prioritization in research, monitoring, and control.
Topics: Animals; Cost of Illness; Decision Making; Decision Trees; Disabled Persons; Humans; Paragonimiasis; Paragonimus; Patient Outcome Assessment
PubMed: 30342548
DOI: 10.1186/s40249-018-0485-5 -
Parasitology Research Feb 2021Paragonimiasis is a foodborne trematode infection that affects 23 million people, mainly in Asia. Lung fluke infections lead frequently to chronic cough with fever and...
Paragonimiasis is a foodborne trematode infection that affects 23 million people, mainly in Asia. Lung fluke infections lead frequently to chronic cough with fever and hemoptysis, and are often confused with lung cancer or tuberculosis. Paragonimiasis can be efficiently treated with praziquantel, but diagnosis is often delayed, and patients are frequently treated for other conditions. To improve diagnosis, we selected five Paragonimus kellicotti proteins based on transcriptional abundance, recognition by patient sera, and conservation among trematodes and expressed them as His-fusion proteins in Escherichia coli. Sequences for these proteins have 76-99% identity with amino acid sequences for orthologs in the genomes of Paragonimus westermani, Paragonimus heterotremus, and Paragonimus miyazakii. Immunohistology studies showed that antibodies raised to four recombinant proteins bound to the tegument of adult P. kellicotti worms, at the parasite host interface. Only a known egg antigen was absent from the tegument but present in developing and mature eggs. We evaluated the diagnostic potential of these antigens by Western blot with sera from patients with paragonimiasis (from MO and the Philippines), fascioliasis, and schistosomiasis, and with sera from healthy North American controls. Two recombinant proteins (a cysteine protease and a myoglobin) showed the highest sensitivity and specificity as diagnostic antigens, and they detected antibodies in sera from paragonimiasis patients with early or mature infections. In contrast, antibodies to egg yolk ferritin appeared to be specific marker for patients with adult fluke infections that produce eggs. Our study has identified and localized antigens that are promising for serodiagnosis of human paragonimiasis.
Topics: Adult; Animals; Anthelmintics; Antibodies, Helminth; Antigens, Helminth; Asia; Gerbillinae; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Paragonimiasis; Paragonimus; Paragonimus westermani; Praziquantel; Recombinant Proteins; Sensitivity and Specificity; Serologic Tests
PubMed: 33415393
DOI: 10.1007/s00436-020-06990-z -
GigaScience Jul 2020Paragonimus spp. (lung flukes) are among the most injurious foodborne helminths, infecting ∼23 million people and subjecting ∼292 million to infection risk....
BACKGROUND
Paragonimus spp. (lung flukes) are among the most injurious foodborne helminths, infecting ∼23 million people and subjecting ∼292 million to infection risk. Paragonimiasis is acquired from infected undercooked crustaceans and primarily affects the lungs but often causes lesions elsewhere including the brain. The disease is easily mistaken for tuberculosis owing to similar pulmonary symptoms, and accordingly, diagnostics are in demand.
RESULTS
We assembled, annotated, and compared draft genomes of 4 prevalent and distinct Paragonimus species: Paragonimus miyazakii, Paragonimus westermani, Paragonimus kellicotti, and Paragonimus heterotremus. Genomes ranged from 697 to 923 Mb, included 12,072-12,853 genes, and were 71.6-90.1% complete according to BUSCO. Orthologous group analysis spanning 21 species (lung, liver, and blood flukes, additional platyhelminths, and hosts) provided insights into lung fluke biology. We identified 256 lung fluke-specific and conserved orthologous groups with consistent transcriptional adult-stage Paragonimus expression profiles and enriched for iron acquisition, immune modulation, and other parasite functions. Previously identified Paragonimus diagnostic antigens were matched to genes, providing an opportunity to optimize and ensure pan-Paragonimus reactivity for diagnostic assays.
CONCLUSIONS
This report provides advances in molecular understanding of Paragonimus and underpins future studies into the biology, evolution, and pathogenesis of Paragonimus and related foodborne flukes. We anticipate that these novel genomic and transcriptomic resources will be invaluable for future lung fluke research.
Topics: Animals; Computational Biology; Disease Susceptibility; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Ontology; Genomics; Host-Parasite Interactions; Humans; Molecular Sequence Annotation; Multigene Family; Paragonimiasis; Paragonimus; Phylogeny; Transcriptome
PubMed: 32687148
DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giaa073 -
The Journal of Veterinary Medical... Mar 2021Paragonimiasis is a particular foodborne parasitic disease that is endemic to southern Kyushu, including Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. We previously detected Paragonimus...
Paragonimiasis is a particular foodborne parasitic disease that is endemic to southern Kyushu, including Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. We previously detected Paragonimus westermani triploid larvae in meat samples obtained from wild boars and sika deer hunted in Akune City, Kagoshima Prefecture. These mammals act as paratenic hosts and their meat is a source of human paragonimiasis. Paratenic host mammals and humans become infected with the lung fluke, P. westermani, following consumption of second intermediate hosts, freshwater crab species, namely, Geothelphusa dehaani or Sawagani in Japanese, and Eriocheir japonica or Mokuzugani in Japanese. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the current infection status of P. westermani in freshwater crabs in Akune City. We collected freshwater crabs from 15 locations and found that the prevalence of P. westermani metacercariae was 1.6% for Sawagani (15 of 941 examined) and 22.1% for Mokuzugani (21 of 95 examined). Based on the morphological characterization of metacercariae and molecular analyses of the internal transcribed spacer 2 region and mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene region using PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequencing, all metacercariae were identified as the triploid form of P. westermani. These results indicate that Sawagani and Mokuzugani serve as second intermediate hosts to maintain the life cycle of triploid P. westermani. Further, infection in crabs potentially leads to subsequent P. westermani infections in wild mammals, including wild boars and sika deer, both of which are considered important types of game meat in Japan.
Topics: Animals; Brachyura; Deer; Fresh Water; Japan; Metacercariae; Paragonimus; Paragonimus westermani; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; Sus scrofa; Swine
PubMed: 33473059
DOI: 10.1292/jvms.20-0576