Africa: Hookworm Genome Sequence Helps Identify Drug Candidates

Scientists have sequenced the genome of Necator americanus, the parasite behind around 85 per cent of human hookworm infections, giving them an unprecedented insight into the worm's biology that could help accelerate the development of drugs, diagnostics and vaccines against it.

They also used the sequence of the hookworm genome to identify possible targets for drugs and vaccines, publishing their findings in Nature Genetics this week (19 January).

Hookworms are responsible for neglected tropical diseases that affect 700 million people in poor communities. Infection with N. americanus leads to anaemia, malnutrition in pregnant women and impairment of children's cognitive and physical development.

With treatment failure due to drug resistance already becoming a challenge for current anti-hookworm therapies, new interventions are needed, the paper says.

But the lack of the parasite's complete genetic sequence has hampered the hunt for new approaches, scientists say.

One example is a family of proteins known as SCP/TAP, which are involved in host-parasite interactions.

They "have been studied as potential candidates for developing treatments" says Makedonka Mitreva, corresponding author from The Genome Institute at Washington University, United States.

"However, the full complement and the complexity of their gene family was not known."

The study identified 96 of these proteins specific to N. americanus, which could be potential drug or vaccine targets.

Stefan Geiger, an immunologist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, welcomes the study.

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Africa: Hookworm Genome Sequence Helps Identify Drug Candidates