Metabolomics reveal alterations in arachidonic acid metabolism in Schistosoma mekongi after exposure to praziquantel

BackgroundMekong schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by the blood-dwelling fluke Schistosoma mekongi. This disease contributes to human morbidity and mortality in the Mekong region, posing a public health threat to people in the area. Currently, praziquantel (PZQ) is the drug of choice for the treatment of Mekong schistosomiasis. However, the molecular mechanisms of PZQ action remain unclear, and Schistosoma PZQ resistance has been reported occasionally. Through this research, we aimed to use a metabolomic approach to identify the potentially altered metabolic pathways in S. mekongi associated with PZQ treatment.Methodology/Principal findingsAdult stage S. mekongi were treated with 0, 20, 40, or 100 μg/mL PZQ in vitro. After an hour of exposure to PZQ, schistosome metabolites were extracted and studied with mass spectrometry. The metabolomic data for the treatment groups were analyzed with the XCMS online platform and compared with data for the no treatment group. After low, medium (IC₅₀), and high doses of PZQ, we found changes in 1,007 metabolites, of which phosphatidylserine and anandamide were the major differential metabolites by multivariate and pairwise analysis. In the pathway analysis, arachidonic acid metabolism was found to be altered following PZQ treatment, indicating that this pathway may be affected by the drug and potentially considered as a novel target for anti-schistosomiasis drug development.Conclusions/SignificanceOur findings suggest that arachidonic acid metabolism is a possible target in the parasiticidal effects of PZQ against S. mekongi. Identifying potential targets of the effective drug PZQ provides an interesting viewpoint for the discovery and development of new agents that could enhance the prevention and treatment of schistosomiasis.     

Annotated catalogue of the types of Indo-Burmese non-marine Gastropoda deposited in the Faculty of Tropical Medicine,Mahidol University,Thailand

ABSTRACT

Four decades after its publication, Rolf A.M. Brandt’s 1974 monograph on the non-marine molluscs of Thailand remains the main authority on freshwater and estuarine species for Southeast Asia and includes up to 165 new species of snails and bivalves described by Brandt and colleagues in the same book and preceding publications. All the holotypes are lodged at the Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Senckenberg in Germany, and are largely inaccessible to Thai and other Southeast Asian researchers, who rely heavily on the Brandt collection as a key reference. Paratypes were, however, donated to various other collections, including some in Thailand. We present the first catalogue of 45 paratypes of gastropods of the Brandt collection, described from Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, which are lodged at the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Thailand.