Development of in vitro Schistosoma culture system

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K19383
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 49:Pathology, infection/immunology, and related fields
• Research Institution: Nara Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Yoshikawa Masahide 奈良県立医科大学, 医学部, 非常勤講師 (50230701)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 王寺 幸輝 奈良県立医科大学, 医学部, 准教授 (50343421)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 寄生虫 / 感染症 / 住血吸虫 / 培養 / 臓器 / 中間宿主 / 淡水貝 / 抽出

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Schistosomiasis is one of the most prevalent waterborne parasitic diseases affecting humans. In natural conditions, snails are necessary for maintenance of its lifecycle and also required as intermediate hosts to maintain the lifecycle in laboratory settings. In the present study, the location of S. mansoni larvae in snails after infection was investigated. Larvae were found located in the head-foot area of snails at 10 days post-infection, then their location was predominantly changed to the hepatopancreas and ovotestis area by 56 days post-infection. Next, the effects of extracts from various organs of snails including head-foot and hepatopancreas and ovotestis for in vitro culturing of S. mansoni larvae were investigated. The head-foot extract enabled prolonged culturing of S. mansoni larvae. These results may provide important information for identifying essential factors and molecules for culturing Schistosoma larvae in vitro.

Free Research Field

感染症

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究により、住血吸虫の中間宿主（淡水巻貝）内における発育動態を世界で初めて明らかにすることができた。さらに、それらの知見を基に、貝を用いることなく住血吸虫を維持、発育可能な培養系の樹立に成功した。本成果は、貝由来抽出物が住血吸虫の維持や発育を制御可能とするばかりでなく、住血吸虫の貝内発育メカニズムを解明する点で重要な知見をもたらし、向後の駆虫薬の開発や農業薬剤の開発において、福音をもたらすと考えられる。