Ricerc@Sapienza

Anisakiasis is an emerging zoonotic disease caused by nematodes of the genus Anisakis and characterized by gastrointestinal, ectopic or allergic reactions, following the ingestion of infected raw or undercooked fish or mollusks.
Despite its increasing public health awareness, most of the mechanisms of infection and clinical outcomes in humans are still unknown.
As parasitic nematodes are masterclass of host immune manipulation, establishing successful long-term infections, exosomal microvesicles carrying non-coding RNAs recently emerged as relevant players in intercellular signaling and parasite-host interactions. To disentangle the host-parasite crosstalk, we have recently identified molecules putatively involved in penetration of host tissues, by completing Anisakis larval and pharyngeal transcriptome analyses and we are currently analyzing larval and exosomal miRNAs content providing the first Anisakis miRNAs catalogue.
Few attempts are available so far for the in-vitro analysis of inflammatory response in a suitable model for anisakiasis.
The present project aims at evaluating the appropriate in-vitro model for studying Anisakis-human cells interactions and to study cellular response after the exposure to culture media incubated with infective Anisakis larvae, supposedly releasing extracellular vesicles as exosomes containing regulatory miRNAs. They play crucial roles in post-transcriptional regulation of target host genes, as reported for other nematodes of public health concern as Brugia malayi and Ascaris suum.
Analysis of cellular response will complement the ongoing analysis on Anisakis miRNAs, and such evidences may together shed light on the early mechanisms of host manipulation by anisakid nematodes and may help the development of early diagnostic biomarkers, as well as allergen-specific, preventive and therapeutic targets.