UMMS Affiliation
Program in Molecular Medicine
Publication Date
2021-03-26
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Immunology and Infectious Disease | Parasitic Diseases | Veterinary Medicine
Abstract
Ascaris and Parascaris are important parasites in the family Ascarididae, large, ubiquitous intestinal-dwelling nematodes infecting all classes of vertebrates. Parasitic nematode drug resistance in veterinary medicine and drug recalcitrance in human medicine are increasing worldwide, with few if any new therapeutic classes on the horizon. Some of these parasites are zoonotic, e.g., Ascaris is passed from humans to pigs and vice versa. The development of new therapies against this family of parasites would have major implications for both human and livestock health. Here we tested the therapeutic ability of a paraprobiotic or dead probiotic that expresses the Bacillus thuringiensis Cry5B protein with known anthelmintic properties, against zoonotic Ascaris suum and Parascaris spp. This paraprobiotic, known as IBaCC, intoxicated A. suum larvae in vitro and was highly effective in vivo against intestinal A. suum infections in a new mouse model for this parasite. Fermentation was scaled up to 350 l to treat pigs and horses. Single dose Cry5B IBaCC nearly completely cleared A. suum infections in pigs. Furthermore, single dose Cry5B IBaCC drove fecal egg counts in Parascaris-infected foals to zero, showing at least parity with, and potential superiority to, current efficacy of anthelmintics used against this parasite. Cry5B IBaCC therefore represents a new, paraprobiotic One Health approach towards targeting Ascarididae that is safe, effective, massively scalable, stable, and useful in human and veterinary medicine in both the developed and developing regions of the world.
Keywords
Anthelmintic, Ascaris, Bacillus thuringiensis, Cry5B crystal protein, Paraprobiotic, Parascaris
Rights and Permissions
Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
DOI of Published Version
10.1016/j.onehlt.2021.100241
Source
Urban JF Jr, Nielsen MK, Gazzola D, Xie Y, Beshah E, Hu Y, Li H, Rus F, Flanagan K, Draper A, Vakalapudi S, Li RW, Ostroff GR, Aroian RV. An inactivated bacterium (paraprobiotic) expressing Bacillus thuringiensis Cry5B as a therapeutic for Ascaris and Parascaris spp. infections in large animals. One Health. 2021 Mar 26;12:100241. doi: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2021.100241. PMID: 33889707; PMCID: PMC8048022. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Related Resources
PubMed ID
33889707
Repository Citation
Urban JF, Nielsen MK, Gazzola D, Xie Y, Beshah E, Hu Y, Li H, Rus F, Flanagan K, Draper A, Vakalapudi S, Li RW, Ostroff GR, Aroian RV. (2021). An inactivated bacterium (paraprobiotic) expressing Bacillus thuringiensis Cry5B as a therapeutic for Ascaris and Parascaris spp. infections in large animals. Open Access Publications by UMMS Authors. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.onehlt.2021.100241. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/oapubs/4654
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons, Parasitic Diseases Commons, Veterinary Medicine Commons