Filarial disease in the Brazilian Amazon and emerging opportunities for treatment and control

Portela, Cleudecir Siqueira; Mendes de Araújo, Cláudia Patrícia; Moura Sousa, Patrícia; Gomes Simão, Carla Letícia; Silva de Oliveira, João Carlos; Crainey, James Lee

doi:10.1016/j.crpvbd.2023.100168

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…The human filariae Mansonella perstans, Loa loa and Onchocerca volvulus affect more than 240 million individuals. Whereas Loa loa is only prevalent in Western and Central Africa, M. perstans and O. volvulus are endemic throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South and Central America ( 1 , 2 ). All three parasites are vector-borne diseases and transmission depend on Culicoides midges for M. perstans ( 3 , 4 ), Chrysops flies for Loa loa ( 5 ) and Simulium black flies for O. volvulus ( 6 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative development of human filariae Loa loa, Onchocerca volvulus and Mansonella perstans in immunocompromised mouse strains

Chunda,

Fombad,

Kien

et al. 2024

Front. Trop. Dis

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IntroductionMouse models of human filarial infections are not only urgently needed to investigate the biology of the nematodes and their modulation of the host’s immunity, but will also provide a platform to screen and test novel anti-filarial drugs. Recently, murine Loa loa infection models have been stablished using immunocompromised mouse strains, whereas murine Mansonella perstans infections have not been implemented until now.MethodsTherefore, we aim to establish experimental M. perstans infections using the immunocompromised mouse strains RAG2IL-2Rγ-/- (lack B, T and natural killer cells), IL-4Rα/IL-5-/- (impaired IL-4/5 signalling and eosinophil activation) and NOD.Cg-PrkdcscidIl2rgtm1Wj l/SzJ (NOD scid gamma, NSG) BALB/c mice (lack mature lymphocytes) through subcutaneous (s.c.) or intraperitoneal (i.p.) inoculation of infective stage 3 larvae (L3) isolated from engorged vectors.ResultsIn total, 145 immunocompromised mice have been inoculated with 3,250 M. perstans, 3,337 O. volvulus, and 2,720 Loa loa L3 to comparatively analyse which immunocompromised mouse strain is susceptible to human filarial infections. Whereas, no M. perstans and O. volvulus L3 could be recovered upon 2-63 days post-inoculation, a 62-66% Loa loa L3 recovery rate could be achieved in the different mouse strains. Gender of mice, type of inoculation (s.c. or i.p.) or time point of analysis (2-63 days post inoculation) did not interfere with the success of L3 recovery. In addition, administration of the immune suppressants hydrocortisone, prednisolone and cyclophosphamide did not restore M. perstans L3 recovery rates.DiscussionThese findings show that RAG2IL-2Rg-/-BALB/c and C57BL/6, IL-4Rα/IL-5-/- BALB/c and NSG mice were not susceptible to M. perstans and O. volvulus L3 inoculation using the applied methods, whereas Loa loa infection could be maintained. Further studies should investigate if humanized immunocompromised mice might be susceptible to M. perstans. and O. volvulus.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative development of human filariae Loa loa, Onchocerca volvulus and Mansonella perstans in immunocompromised mouse strains

Chunda,

Fombad,

Kien

et al. 2024

Front. Trop. Dis

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“…It is caused by the filarial nematodes, Mansonella perstans, M. ozzardi and M. streptocerca. Of the three species, M. ozzardi is the major species in Latin America and the Caribbean, while M. perstans and M. streptocerca are reported in Africa [3]. Transmission is through the bite of infective midges (Culicoides spp.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification and characterisation of Mansonella perstans in the Volta Region of Ghana

Opoku,

de Souza

2024

PLoS ONE

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Mansonella spp. have been reported to have a wide global distribution. Despite the distribution and co-occurrence with other filarial parasites like Wuchereria bancrofti, Onchocerca volvulus and Loa loa, it is given little attention. There are few surveillance programmes for assessing the distribution of mansonellosis, due to the associated mild to no symptoms experienced by infected people. However, addressing this infection is critical to the onchocerciasis control program as current rapid diagnostic tools targeting O. volvulus have the tendency to cross react with Mansonella species. In this study we identified and characterised M. perstans from five sites in two districts in the Volta Region of Ghana and compared them to samples from other regions. Night blood smears and filter blood blots were obtained from individuals as part of a study on lymphatic filariasis. The Giemsa-stained smears were screened by microscopy for the presence of filarial parasites. Genomic DNA was extracted from blood blots from 39 individuals that were positive for M. perstans and Nested PCR targeting the internal spacer 1 (ITS-1) was conducted. Of these, 30 were sequenced and 24 sequences were kept for further analysis. Phylogenetic analysis of 194 nucleotide positions showed no differences in the samples collected. The similarities suggests that there could be one species in this area. However, more robust studies with larger sample sizes are required to draw such conclusions. We also observed a clustering of the samples from Ghana with reference sequences from Africa and Brazil, suggesting they could be related. This study draws further attention to a neglected infection, presents the first characterisation of M. perstans in Ghana and calls for more population-based studies across different geographical zones to ascertain species variations and disease distribution.

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Filarial disease in the Brazilian Amazon and emerging opportunities for treatment and control

Cited by 2 publications

References 104 publications

Comparative development of human filariae Loa loa, Onchocerca volvulus and Mansonella perstans in immunocompromised mouse strains

Comparative development of human filariae Loa loa, Onchocerca volvulus and Mansonella perstans in immunocompromised mouse strains

Identification and characterisation of Mansonella perstans in the Volta Region of Ghana

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