-
Trends in Parasitology Jul 2023The mass production of insects is rapidly expanding globally, supporting multiple industrial needs. However, parasite infections in insect mass-production systems can... (Review)
Review
The mass production of insects is rapidly expanding globally, supporting multiple industrial needs. However, parasite infections in insect mass-production systems can lower productivity and can lead to devastating losses. High rearing densities and artificial environmental conditions in mass-rearing facilities affect the insect hosts as well as their parasites. Environmental conditions such as temperature, gases, light, vibration, and ionizing radiation can affect productivity in insect mass-production facilities by altering insect development and susceptibility to parasites. This review explores the recent literature on environment-host-parasite interactions with a specific focus on mass-reared insect species. Understanding these complex interactions offers opportunities to optimise environmental conditions for the prevention of infectious diseases in mass-reared insects.
Topics: Animals; Host-Parasite Interactions; Insecta; Parasites
PubMed: 37258342
DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2023.04.007 -
Parasitology Dec 2022Finfish aquaculture in freshwater and marine environments is continuously expanding globally, and the potential for a substantial further increase is well documented.... (Review)
Review
Finfish aquaculture in freshwater and marine environments is continuously expanding globally, and the potential for a substantial further increase is well documented. The industry is supplying fish products for human consumption to the same extent as capture fisheries, and new fish species for domestication are still being selected by the industry. The challenge faced by all aquacultured species, classical and novel, is the range of pathogens associated with each new fish type. A fish host in its natural environment carries a series of more or less specific parasites (specialists and generalists). Some of these show a marked ability to propagate in aquaculture settings. They may then elicit disease when infection intensities in the confined aquaculture environment reach high levels. In addition, the risk of transmission of parasites from aquaculture enterprises to wild fish stocks adds to the parasitic challenge. Control programmes of various kinds are needed and these may include chemotherapeutants and medicines as the farmer's first and convenient choice, but mechanical, biological, immunological and genetic control methods are available solutions. New methods are still to be developed by scrutinizing the life cycle of each particular parasite species and pin-pointing the vulnerable stage to be targeted. As parasites exhibit a huge potential for adaptation to environmental changes, one must realize that only one approach rarely is sufficient. The present work therefore elaborates on and advocates for implementation of integrated control strategies for diseases caused by protozoan and metazoan parasites.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Fish Diseases; Aquaculture; Fisheries; Fishes; Parasites; Parasitic Diseases
PubMed: 35950444
DOI: 10.1017/S0031182022001093 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Jan 2023Centuries of scientific breakthroughs have brought us closer to understanding and managing the spread of parasitic diseases. Despite ongoing technological advancements... (Review)
Review
Centuries of scientific breakthroughs have brought us closer to understanding and managing the spread of parasitic diseases. Despite ongoing technological advancements in the detection, treatment, and control of parasitic illnesses, their effects on animal and human health remain a major concern worldwide. Aptamers are single-stranded oligonucleotides whose unique three-dimensional structures enable them to interact with high specificity and affinity to a wide range of targets. In recent decades, aptamers have emerged as attractive alternatives to antibodies as therapeutic and diagnostic agents. Due to their superior stability, reusability, and modifiability, aptamers have proven to be effective bioreceptors for the detection of toxins, contaminants, biomarkers, whole cells, pathogens, and others. As such, they have been integrated into a variety of electrochemical, fluorescence, and optical biosensors to effectively detect whole parasites and their proteins. This review offers a summary of the various types of parasite-specific aptamer-based biosensors, their general mechanisms and their performance.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Parasites; Aptamers, Nucleotide; Biomarkers; Antibodies; Biosensing Techniques
PubMed: 36679358
DOI: 10.3390/s23020562 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Nov 2021Species are shifting their distributions in response to climate change. This geographic reshuffling may result in novel co-occurrences among species, which could lead to...
Species are shifting their distributions in response to climate change. This geographic reshuffling may result in novel co-occurrences among species, which could lead to unseen biotic interactions, including the exchange of parasites between previously isolated hosts. Identifying potential new host-parasite interactions would improve forecasting of disease emergence and inform proactive disease surveillance. However, accurate predictions of future cross-species disease transmission have been hampered by the lack of a generalized approach and data availability. Here, we propose a framework to predict novel host-parasite interactions based on a combination of niche modelling of future host distributions and parasite sharing models. Using the North American ungulates as a proof of concept, we show this approach has high cross-validation accuracy in over 85% of modelled parasites and find that more than 34% of the host-parasite associations forecasted by our models have already been recorded in the literature. We discuss potential sources of uncertainty and bias that may affect our results and similar forecasting approaches, and propose pathways to generate increasingly accurate predictions. Our results indicate that forecasting parasite sharing in response to shifts in host geographic distributions allow for the identification of regions and taxa most susceptible to emergent pathogens under climate change. This article is part of the theme issue 'Infectious disease macroecology: parasite diversity and dynamics across the globe'.
Topics: Animals; Artiodactyla; Climate Change; Forecasting; Host-Parasite Interactions; Models, Biological; North America; Parasitology; Perissodactyla
PubMed: 34538143
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0360 -
Frontiers in Cellular and Infection... 2022
Topics: Animals; Apicomplexa; Cell Communication; Parasites; Protozoan Infections
PubMed: 35685751
DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.930073 -
Parasitology Dec 2022The myxozoan was described from hatchery rainbow trout over 70 years ago. The parasite continues to cause severe disease in salmon and trout, and is recognized as a... (Review)
Review
The myxozoan was described from hatchery rainbow trout over 70 years ago. The parasite continues to cause severe disease in salmon and trout, and is recognized as a barrier to salmon recovery in some rivers. This review incorporates changes in our knowledge of the parasite's life cycle, taxonomy and biology and examines how this information has expanded our understanding of the interactions between and its salmonid and annelid hosts, and how overarching environmental factors affect this host–parasite system. Development of molecular diagnostic techniques has allowed discrimination of differences in parasite genotypes, which have differing host affinities, and enabled the measurement of the spatio-temporal abundance of these different genotypes. Establishment of the life cycle in the laboratory has enabled studies on host–parasite interactions and the availability of transcriptomic data has informed our understanding of parasite virulence factors and host defences. Together, these advances have informed the development of models and management actions to mitigate disease.
Topics: Animals; Parasites; Cnidaria; Parasitic Diseases, Animal; Fish Diseases; Myxozoa; Oncorhynchus mykiss
PubMed: 36081219
DOI: 10.1017/S0031182022001275 -
PLoS Pathogens Nov 2019The shape and number of mitochondria respond to the metabolic needs during the cell cycle of the eukaryotic cell. In the best-studied model systems of animals and fungi,... (Review)
Review
The shape and number of mitochondria respond to the metabolic needs during the cell cycle of the eukaryotic cell. In the best-studied model systems of animals and fungi, the cells contain many mitochondria, each carrying its own nucleoid. The organelles, however, mostly exist as a dynamic network, which undergoes constant cycles of division and fusion. These mitochondrial dynamics are driven by intricate protein machineries centered around dynamin-related proteins (DRPs). Here, we review recent advances on the dynamics of mitochondria and mitochondrion-related organelles (MROs) of parasitic protists. In contrast to animals and fungi, many parasitic protists from groups of Apicomplexa or Kinetoplastida carry only a single mitochondrion with a single nucleoid. In these groups, mitochondrial division is strictly coupled to the cell cycle, and the morphology of the organelle responds to the cell differentiation during the parasite life cycle. On the other hand, anaerobic parasitic protists such as Giardia, Entamoeba, and Trichomonas contain multiple MROs that have lost their organellar genomes. We discuss the function of DRPs, the occurrence of mitochondrial fusion, and mitophagy in the parasitic protists from the perspective of eukaryote evolution.
Topics: Animals; Mitochondrial Dynamics; Parasites; Parasitic Diseases
PubMed: 31751405
DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008008 -
Parasites & Vectors Sep 2023
Topics: Animals; Parasites; Artificial Intelligence; Parasitic Diseases
PubMed: 37770977
DOI: 10.1186/s13071-023-05972-1 -
Frontiers in Immunology 2021
Topics: Animals; Female; Host-Parasite Interactions; Humans; Parasites; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications, Parasitic; Protozoan Vaccines
PubMed: 34975925
DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.813446 -
Frontiers in Immunology 2022Parasitic infections of the central nervous system are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa. The neurological, cognitive, and psychiatric sequelae of... (Review)
Review
Parasitic infections of the central nervous system are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa. The neurological, cognitive, and psychiatric sequelae of these infections result from a complex interplay between the parasites and the host inflammatory response. Here we review some of the diseases caused by selected parasitic organisms known to infect the nervous system including , , spp., and species. For each parasite, we describe the geographical distribution, prevalence, life cycle, and typical clinical symptoms of infection and pathogenesis. We pay particular attention to how the parasites infect the brain and the interaction between each organism and the host immune system. We describe how an understanding of these processes may guide optimal diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to treat these disorders. Finally, we highlight current gaps in our understanding of disease pathophysiology and call for increased interrogation of these often-neglected disorders of the nervous system.
Topics: Animals; Parasites; Parasitic Diseases; Plasmodium falciparum; Toxoplasma; Trypanosoma brucei brucei
PubMed: 35222377
DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.791488