DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The effects of multi-species interactions on the community structure of parasites

论文研究：多物种相互作用对寄生虫群落结构的影响

• 批准号: 1501012
• 负责人: Andrea Graham
• 金额: $ 1.63万
• 依托单位: Princeton University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-06-15 至 2017-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1501012&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; effects; multi; species

Research on infectious diseases typically focuses on single-parasite infections. However, most individuals are co-infected with multiple parasite species, and parasites interact with one another within hosts. These interactions may profoundly impact the outcome of parasite infections. For example, parasites that directly compete with one another for the same resource may inhibit each other's persistence. This project will examine the direct and indirect interactions of multiple intestinal parasites in school children in southern Vietnam. The prevalence of parasites will be quantified and interactions examined through immunological assays. This research will expand from the idea that hosts harbor only one infection at a time and will provide a better understanding of the patterns and processes shaping within-host parasite communities. Ultimately, by considering hosts infected with multiple parasite species, this research may reshape the design and implementation of global health interventions against intestinal parasites; in the short term it will aid in local public health efforts in Vietnam. The project will also advance the field of disease ecology by the study of population-level processes. It will support the training of a graduate student while increasing international colloboration.Compared to single-parasite infections, multi-species infection interactions can profoundly impact host fitness, parasite transmission, and disease dynamics in unexpected ways. This project will investigate the effects of parasitic helminth infections on subsequent colonization by diarrheal pathogens. The first step will determine the composition of parasite communities using PCR on stool samples. The second step will use sequence the 16S rRNA gene to generate data on the taxonomy of the gut microbiota, and blood and stool samples will be analyzed for immune markers. As helminth infections occur in over 2 billion people worldwide, understanding diarrheal diseases in the context of helminth co-infections may help explain the heterogeneity in parasite burden and disease severity found amongst individual hosts and shape patterns of disease dynamics at the population level. Knowledge about such within-host parasite interactions will also have important implications for studies in disease ecology and will be important for effective management of human and animal diseases in co-infected populations. This project will foster collaborations between U.S., U.K., and Vietnamese universities and will train students in parasitological, immunological, and ecological methods. The overall study findings will be published in both English and Vietnamese and will also be conveyed to the Vietnamese community and public health system through outreach programs.

对传染病的研究通常集中在单一寄生虫感染上。然而，大多数个体同时感染多个寄生虫物种，并且寄生虫在宿主内相互作用。这些相互作用可能会对寄生虫感染的结果产生深远影响。例如，直接相互竞争相同资源的寄生虫可能会抑制彼此的持久性。该项目将研究越南南部学龄儿童中多种肠道寄生虫的直接和间接相互作用。寄生虫的流行程度将被量化，并通过免疫学分析检查相互作用。这项研究将从宿主一次只有一种感染的想法扩展，并将更好地理解形成宿主内寄生虫群落的模式和过程。最终，通过考虑感染多种寄生虫的宿主，这项研究可能会重塑针对肠道寄生虫的全球卫生干预措施的设计和实施；在短期内，它将有助于越南当地的公共卫生努力。该项目还将通过研究种群水平的过程来推动疾病生态学领域的发展。它将支持研究生的培养，同时增加国际合作。与单一寄生虫感染相比，多物种感染相互作用可以以意想不到的方式深刻影响宿主健康、寄生虫传播和疾病动态。该项目将调查寄生蠕虫感染对腹泻病原体随后定植的影响。第一步将通过对粪便样本进行聚合酶链式反应来确定寄生虫群落的组成。第二步将使用16S rRNA基因序列来生成关于肠道微生物区系分类的数据，并将分析血液和粪便样本以寻找免疫标志物。由于蠕虫感染发生在全世界20多亿人中，在蠕虫合并感染的背景下了解腹泻疾病可能有助于解释在单个宿主之间发现的寄生虫负担和疾病严重程度的异质性，并在种群水平上形成疾病动态模式。了解这种宿主内寄生虫的相互作用也将对疾病生态学的研究产生重要影响，并将对在共同感染人群中有效管理人和动物疾病非常重要。该项目将促进美国、英国和越南大学之间的合作，并将对学生进行寄生虫学、免疫学和生态学方法的培训。整个研究结果将以英语和越南语发表，并将通过外展计划传达给越南社区和公共卫生系统。