科學(xué)家測出了象皮病的病原體馬來絲蟲（Brugia malayi）的基因組序列，這一成果可能有助于開發(fā)針對該病的新藥,。
由英國,、美國和加拿大科學(xué)家開展的這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)表在了9月21日的《科學(xué)》雜志上。為了發(fā)現(xiàn)馬來絲蟲基因組中與象皮病相關(guān)的基因,，他們比較了馬來絲蟲和其他兩種線蟲的基因組,。
象皮病（淋巴絲蟲?。┦且环N蚊媒疾病,，它是由包括馬來絲蟲在內(nèi)的幾種線蟲導(dǎo)致的。根據(jù)世界衛(wèi)生組織的數(shù)據(jù),，全世界有1億人受到該病影響,，大部分生活在發(fā)展中國家。
一旦感染更該病,，絲蟲就會(huì)生活在人體的淋巴結(jié)中,，導(dǎo)致肢體和外生殖器腫脹和畸形,。
盡管現(xiàn)有療法很有效，但是它們的療程很長,，而患者堅(jiān)持服藥的比率通常較低,，這就降低了這些療法的效果。治療藥物有毒副作用,，也有耐藥性病例的報(bào)道,，這凸顯了對新療法的需求。
這組科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)了馬來絲蟲的1.15萬個(gè)編碼蛋白質(zhì)的基因,。該研究的第一作者,、美國匹茲堡醫(yī)學(xué)院的Elodie Ghedin告訴本網(wǎng)站說，他們的研究組在比較馬來絲蟲和此前測出的該寄生蟲的一些基因序列時(shí)吃驚地發(fā)現(xiàn),，大約有20%到30%的序列不匹配,。
由這些新發(fā)現(xiàn)的基因編碼而成的蛋白質(zhì)似乎與已知的免疫調(diào)節(jié)蛋白（免疫系統(tǒng)的調(diào)節(jié)因子）類似，這表明它們參與了讓宿主的免疫系統(tǒng)失效的工作,，從而確保寄生蟲不被發(fā)現(xiàn),。
Ghedin說：“這種寄生蟲可以在宿主體內(nèi)生存數(shù)年而不必然導(dǎo)致疾病。事實(shí)上,，被感染個(gè)體表現(xiàn)出的疾病越少,，他們體內(nèi)的寄生蟲就越多。如今我們知道了這些人類沒有的基因,，我們就可以把它們作為靶點(diǎn)控制疾病,。”
她還說，知道了這類此前未知的免疫抑制因子,，也可能用于器官移植和幫助治療自體免疫疾病,。（科學(xué)與發(fā)展網(wǎng)）
原始出處:
Science 21 September 2007:
Vol. 317. no. 5845, pp. 1756 - 1760
DOI: 10.1126/science.1145406
Draft Genome of the Filarial Nematode Parasite Brugia malayi
Elodie Ghedin,1,2# Shiliang Wang,2 David Spiro,2 Elisabet Caler,2 Qi Zhao,2 Jonathan Crabtree,2 Jonathan E. Allen,2* Arthur L. Delcher,2 David B. Guiliano,3 Diego Miranda-Saavedra,4 Samuel V. Angiuoli,2 Todd Creasy,2 Paolo Amedeo,2 Brian Haas,2 Najib M. El-Sayed,2 Jennifer R. Wortman,2 Tamara Feldblyum,2 Luke Tallon,2 Michael Schatz,2 Martin Shumway,2 Hean Koo,2 Steven L. Salzberg,2 Seth Schobel,2 Mihaela Pertea,2 Mihai Pop,2 Owen White,2 Geoffrey J. Barton,4 Clotilde K. S. Carlow,5 Michael J. Crawford,6 Jennifer Daub,7|| Matthew W. Dimmic,6 Chris F. Estes,8 Jeremy M. Foster,5 Mehul Ganatra,5 William F. Gregory,7 Nicholas M. Johnson,9 Jinming Jin,10 Richard Komuniecki,11 Ian Korf,12 Sanjay Kumar,5 Sandra Laney,13 Ben-Wen Li,14 Wen Li,13 Tim H. Lindblom,8 Sara Lustigman,15 Dong Ma,5 Claude V. Maina,5 David M. A. Martin,4 James P. McCarter,6,16 Larry McReynolds,10 Makedonka Mitreva,16 Thomas B. Nutman,17 John Parkinson,18 José M. Peregrín-Alvarez,1 Catherine Poole,5 Qinghu Ren,2 Lori Saunders,13 Ann E. Sluder,19 Katherine Smith,11 Mario Stanke,20 Thomas R. Unnasch,21 Jenna Ware,5 Aguan D. Wei,22 Gary Weil,14 Deryck J. Williams,7 Yinhua Zhang,5 Steven A. Williams,13 Claire Fraser-Liggett,2¶ Barton Slatko,5 Mark L. Blaxter,7 Alan L. Scott23
Parasitic nematodes that cause elephantiasis and river blindness threaten hundreds of millions of people in the developing world. We have sequenced the 90 megabase (Mb) genome of the human filarial parasite Brugia malayi and predict 11,500 protein coding genes in 71 Mb of robustly assembled sequence. Comparative analysis with the free-living, model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans revealed that, despite these genes having maintained little conservation of local synteny during 350 million years of evolution, they largely remain in linkage on chromosomal units. More than 100 conserved operons were identified. Analysis of the predicted proteome provides evidence for adaptations of B. malayi to niches in its human and vector hosts and insights into the molecular basis of a mutualistic relationship with its Wolbachia endosymbiont. These findings offer a foundation for rational drug design.
1 Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA.
2 The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and the J. Craig Venter Institute, 9712 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850, USA.
3 Division of Cell and Molecular Biology, Biochemistry Building, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
4 School of Life Sciences Research, University of Dundee, Dow Street, Dundee, DD1 5EH, UK.
5 Division of Parasitology, New England BioLabs, Inc., 240 County Road, Ipswich, MA 01938, USA.
6 Divergence, Inc., 893 North Warson Road, St. Louis, MO 63141, USA.
7 Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Institute of Immunology and Infection Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK.
8 Division of Science, Lyon College, 2300 Highland Road, Batesville, AR 72501, USA.
9 School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
10 Division of RNA Biology, New England Biolabs, Inc., 240 County Road, Ipswich, MA 01938, USA.
11 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toledo, 2801 West Bancroft Street, Toledo, OH 43606–3390, USA.
12 Genome Center, Section of Molecular Biology, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
13 Clark Science Center, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063, USA.
14 Infectious Diseases Division, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
15 Laboratory of Molecular Parasitology, Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, New York Blood Center, 310 East 67th Street, New York, NY 10021, USA.
16 Genome Sequencing Center, Washington University School of Medicine, 4444 Forest Park Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63108, USA.
17 Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, 6610 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892–6612, USA.
18 Program in Molecular Structure and Function, Hospital for Sick Children, TMDT Building, 101 College Street, 15th Floor, East Tower, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5G 1L7.
19 Cambria Biosciences, 8A Henshaw Street, Woburn, MA 01801, USA.
20 Department of Bioinformatics, University of Göttingen, Goldschmidtstrasse 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
21 Division of Geographic Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, BBRB 203, 1530 Third Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35294–2170, USA.
22 Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
23 Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615 North Wolfe, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
* Present address: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
Present address: Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Present address: Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, Wellcome Trust/MRC Building, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0xY, UK.
Present address: Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, 2105 H. J. Patterson Hall, and Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, 3115 Biomolecular Sciences Building, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
|| Present address: The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton Genome Campus, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK.
¶ Present address: Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 800 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
# To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]
