血吸虫基因组及疫苗的研究进展

血吸虫病是对人类健康危害最为严重的寄生虫病之一。控制并消灭血吸虫病的危害一直是我国和国际社会的主要目标。近几年来,随着对血吸虫生物学(包括基因组和蛋白质组学)和血吸虫病分子病理学、分子免疫学研究的逐渐开展,血吸虫与哺乳动物宿主(包括人)相互作用及致病的机理不断被揭示。此外,曼氏血吸虫和日本血吸虫的基因组序列已经基本测定完成。对基因组序列的解析不仅能够在遗传学水平上揭示虫体的活动规律,而且还将有利于发现新的药物作用靶位和疫苗抗原。通过对曼氏血吸虫和日本血吸虫基因转录谱和蛋白质表达谱的研究,已经发现了一些血吸虫与宿主相互作用的重要分子(如免疫调节因子及表面黏附蛋白等)。同时,在抗血吸虫疫苗的研究方面也取得了很大的进展,以谷胱苷肽-S-转移酶作为主要抗原的曼氏血吸虫疫苗已经开始I和II期临床试验。此外,多种日本血吸虫抗原也开始在动物体上进行免疫及攻虫试验。本文主要就近年来血吸虫基因组学、蛋白质组学及疫苗研究进展做一概述,同时对相关领域的发展提出展望。

Research on Schistosoma Parasites: From Genome to Vaccine Development

Schistomiasis is one of the tropical parasitic diseases which is epidemic in more than 70 countries and the impact of this disease on both economic development and human health in the epidemic regions is still enomous.The successful control of schistosomiasis depends on efforts in different frontiers including social and economic as well as administrative improvements,whereas the scientific understanding of the parasite biology is one of the key elements that will lead to discoveries of new drugs and vaccines.In recent years,tremendous progress has been made in the areas of schistosome infection biology including molecular pathogenesis,immunology and parasite-host interactions.The schistosome genome projects currently undertaken in several institutions have generated very fruitful data which will be a platform for dissection of the parasite biology at the genetic base.Anti-schistosome vaccine has been one of the goals in searching for means of disease prevention.Several vaccine candidates have been tested in both laboratory and clinical settings.With the availability of more and more genomic and proteomic data from studies on the schistosome parasites,vaccine development will hopefully be operated in a more rational way.The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive and prospective summary on recent development in studies on schistosoma parasites from the parasite biology,molecular pathogenesis to vaccine development.