Whipworm parasites live inside the human gut for years, and scientists still do not understand how they evade the immune system to survive that long. This research tackles a fundamental gap in immunology: why the body fails to expel gastrointestinal nematodes, which infect billions of people and livestock worldwide. The field has been stalled by a lack of genomic data, limited immune tools, and poor experimental models that translate poorly to human infection. The team has now generated new genomic information and laboratory systems for whipworm (*Trichuris*), which they argue makes this the right moment to answer the question. If successful, the work will identify the specific parasite molecules that suppress host immunity and the host genes that determine resistance or susceptibility. This could reveal new drug targets or vaccine candidates for whipworm infection, which currently has no effective treatment for chronic cases. The project also aims to build a robust human-relevant experimental system, so future studies can move beyond mouse models. This is fundamental science. Understanding how a parasite disarms the immune system could, in the longer term, also illuminate broader principles of immune regulation relevant to allergies, autoimmune disease, and transplant rejection.
View original technical description
Infection by gastrointestinal nematodes (GI) parasites is an extremely successful life strategy with numerous species infecting all groups of higher order fauna including man, often for most of their lives. This proposal seeks to bring together emerging data and new tools we have generated to answer the long standing question of how gastrointestinal nematodes evade host immunity and survive for prolonged periods of time. We believe that study of whipworm (Trichuris sp.), a ubiquitous GI nema tode infection is now uniquely poised to answer this question overcoming the major bottlenecks that have hampered the field, namely, paucity of genomic information, lack of appropriate immunological tools and tractable in vivo and in vitro experimental murine systems that can readily be translated to human infection. The novel methodologies we are developing together with the emerging Trichuris genomic information we are generating with WTSI will identify novel intervention pathways, generate a step change in our understanding of the host/parasite relationship ultimately leading to improvement in human and animal health. Our key goals, are to i) define the genes and their products in both parasite and host that determine successful parasite invasion and survival, ii) define the host immune- dynamics that lead to either host protection or susceptibility, iii) identify and characterise the key parasite derived immunomodulatory molecules, their structure and function and iv) establish a functional and robust system to study human whipworm including mutually informative approaches in experimental design and analysis.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know