bioRxiv
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Published: September 2024
Soil-transmitted parasitic nematodes infect over 1 billion people worldwide and are a common source of neglected disease. is a potentially fatal skin-penetrating human parasite that is endemic to tropical and subtropical regions around the world. The complex life cycle of species is unique among human-parasitic nematodes in that it includes a single free-living generation featuring soil-dwelling, bacterivorous adults whose progeny all develop into infective larvae. The sensory behaviors that enable free-living adults to navigate and survive soil environments are unknown. infective larvae display parasite-specific sensory-driven behaviors, including robust attraction to mammalian body heat. In contrast, the free-living model nematode displays thermosensory behaviors that guide adult worms to stay within a physiologically permissive range of environmental temperatures. Do and free-living adults, which experience similar environmental stressors, display common thermal preferences? Here, we characterize the thermosensory behaviors of the free-living adults of as well as those of the closely related rat parasite, . We find that free-living adults are exclusively attracted to near-tropical temperatures, despite their inability to infect mammalian hosts. We further show that lifespan is shorter at higher temperatures for free-living adults, similar to the effect of temperature on lifespan. However, we also find that the reproductive potential of the free-living life stage is enhanced at warmer temperatures, particularly for . Together, our results reveal a novel role for thermotaxis to maximize the infectious capacity of obligate parasites and provide insight into the biological adaptations that may contribute to their endemicity in tropical climates.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.12.612595 | DOI Listing |
PLoS Negl Trop Dis
January 2025
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Fatty acid and retinol binding proteins (FARs) are lipid-binding protein that may be associated with modulating nematode pathogenicity to their hosts. However, the functional mechanism of FARs remains elusive. We attempt to study the function of a certain FAR that may be important in the development of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFood web architecture and trophic interactions between organisms can be studied using ratios of naturally occurring stable isotopes of carbon (C/C) and nitrogen (N/N). Most studies, however, focused on free-living organisms, but recently, there has been growing interest in understanding trophic interactions of parasites. The crustacean ectoparasite is a well-studied parasite of freshwater teleost fish, which has low host specificity and a cosmopolitan distribution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSleep Health
January 2025
Department of Human and Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA.
Goal And Aims: One challenge using wearable sensors is nonwear time. Without a nonwear (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNutrients
December 2024
Exerkine Corporation, McMaster University Medical Center, Hamilton, ON L8N 3Z5, Canada.
Background: Anabolic resistance accelerates muscle loss in aging and obesity, thus predisposing to sarcopenic obesity.
Methods: In this retrospective analysis of a randomized clinical trial, we examined baseline predictors of the adaptive response to three months of home-based resistance exercise, daily physical activity, and protein-based, multi-ingredient supplementation (MIS) in a cohort of free-living, older males ( = 32).
Results: Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that obesity and a Global Risk Index for metabolic syndrome (MetS) were the strongest predictors of Δ% gains in lean mass (TLM and ASM), LM/body fat ratios (TLM/%BF, ASM/FM, and ASM/%BF), and allometric LM (ASMI, TLM/BW, TLM/BMI, ASM/BW), with moderately strong, negative correlations to the adaptive response to polytherapy r = -0.
PLoS One
January 2025
Australian National Phenome Center and Center for Computational and Systems Medicine, Health Futures Institute, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
Understanding the distribution and variation in inflammatory markers is crucial for advancing our knowledge of inflammatory processes and evaluating their clinical utility in diagnosing and monitoring acute and chronic disease. 1H NMR spectroscopy of blood plasma and serum was applied to measure a composite panel of inflammatory markers based on acute phase glycoprotein signals (GlycA and GlycB) and sub-regions of the lipoprotein derived Supramolecular Phospholipid Composite signals (SPC1, SPC2 and SPC3) to establish normal ranges in two healthy, predominantly white cohorts from Australia (n = 398) and Spain (n = 80; ages 20-70 years). GlycA, GlycB, SPC1 and SPC3 were not significantly impacted by age or sex, but SPC2 (an HDL-related biomarker) was significantly higher in women across all age ranges by an average of 33.
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