The present Project will apply a genome-wide approach in the investigation of two cases of host-parasite interactions, i.e. in a zoonotic subtype of the protist Blastocystis, and the nematode Anisakis pegreffii, and their accidental host (human). They are etiological agents of neglected "water/food-borne" zoonotic diseases whose occurrence in Italian patients is still underestimated. They both infect the gastrointestinal tract of humans. Further, A. pegreffii provokes allergic disease; it similarly happens in the infection with Blastocystis. It has been also supposed that infection with protozoans increases the intestinal permeability, leading to a major risk of allergic events even when in co-infection with helminths.
In spite of genetic heterogeneity and epidemiology so far investigated in the host-target parasite systems, knowledge on the association between host genetic susceptibility, parasite genome and gene expression analysis of molecules implicated in the pathogenesis correlated with the zoonotic infection of the target organisms of this Project, is still scarce.
The high-throughput "omics" technologies (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics) are becoming very useful to explore the biology and pathogenicity role of parasites in their natural and accidental hosts. In this frame, the main goal of this project is the studying of the parasite-host interaction in the case of those zoonotic organism models. This will be reached using genomic and transcriptomic analyses, and by in vitro and in vivo studies.
The results achieved in the specific objectives (organized in WPs) will add knowledge on the qualitative and quantitative analyses of global genes possibly implicated in the interaction with the host, in the pathogenesis of diseases provoked by target parasites, as well as in human genetics of the host-susceptibility. This represents in some instances both an advance with respect to the state of the art and innovative aspects of the research on those parasites
