DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION LEVELS OF GLUTATHIONE-S-TRANSFERASE (OvGST1) GENE IN THE HOST (HUMAN) AND VECTOR Simulium damnosum
DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION LEVELS OF GLUTATHIONE-S-TRANSFERASE (OvGST1) GENE IN THE HOST (HUMAN) AND VECTOR Simulium damnosum
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Date
2019-03
Authors
GAIYA, Daniel Danladi
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Abstract
Onchocerciasis, a neglected tropical disease (NTD), also known as river blindness, the world‟s second leading cause of preventable blindness is caused by helminths worm Onchocerca volvulus. This parasite lives and multiplies extracellularly in the blood and tissue fluids of their human hosts and is transmitted by the bite of infected blackfly(Simulium damnosum)of the family Simuliidae. O. volvulus GST1 (OvGST1) modulates immune responses through the synthesis of parasite-derived prostanoids and xenobiotic detoxification, thus preventing effector responses. The OvGST1differential expression profile in specific stages of O. volvulus quantified using qPCR relative gene expression technique. The results reveal that OvGST1 is well expressed in the L3 insect developmental stage and microfilaria stage in the human host but poorly expressed in the adult worms of O. volvulus in the human host. Differential expression from skin microfilaria revealed 2.55-fold up-regulation relative to the L3 insect stage of the parasite which in turn revealed a higher OvGST1differential expression compared to adult worms. Reduced glutathione was higher in the human tissues compared to the Simulium proboscis and did not positively correlate with OvGST1 expression in the life-cycle stages Studied. The distribution of microfilaria from the harvested proboscis showed a significantly high infection load (14.43%) for the L3 infective stage studied, on the other hand, the skin snips examined showed a significantly low infection load (5.55%) for microfilariae compared with the nodule which showed a significant decrease in infection load (3.09%). The results on the quantitative polymerase chain reaction differential expression levels of OvGST1gene revealed that OvGST1is expressed in the adult worms, skin snip microfilariae and L3 infective stage, of which the skin snip microfilariae OvGST1was highly up-regulated.
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A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MSc. BIOTECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, NIGERIA
Keywords
DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION LEVELS,, GLUTATHIONE-S-TRANSFERASE,, (OvGST1) GENE,, HOST (HUMAN),, VECTOR Simulium damnosum