Biology of the angiogenins and their function in gastro intestinal nematode infection

肠道蠕虫是家畜非常常见的传染病。它们影响牲畜的福祉和生产力，因此给社会带来了巨大的经济代价。尽管蠕虫感染可以通过药物清除，但随着蠕虫产生抗药性，动物会再次感染，许多药物正在失去效力。此外，消费者还对肉类中的药物残留感到担忧。因此，保护动物免受感染的疫苗在动物福利和畜牧业经济方面都是有益的。对于大多数肠道蠕虫，我们知道控制感染所需的反应类型。此外，与身体如何摆脱感染有关的机制也开始出现。这些知识大部分来自实验室模型，例如小鼠的鞭虫感染。使用这个模型，我们已经确定了一个不寻常的蛋白质家族，称为血管生成素，已知在抵御细菌方面很重要，我们认为它也是抗寄生虫的。因此，只有能够清除感染的小鼠才能高水平表达这些蛋白质；无法清除蠕虫的小鼠不会制造这些蛋白质。我们将从它们的基本生物学和在防御蠕虫中的作用方面来探索这些分子。

Intestinal worms are extraordinarily common infections of domestic animals. They affect the wellbeing and productivity of livestock and thus present a large economic cost to society. Although worm infections can be cleared with drugs, animals become reinfected and many drugs are losing their effectiveness as worms develop drug resistance. Further there are consumer concerns over drug residues in meat. Thus a vaccine to protect animals from infection would be beneficial in terms of both animal welfare and the economy of the livestock industry. For most intestinal worms, we know the type of response required to control infection. Further, mechanisms are beginning to emerge relating to how the body rids itself of infection. Much of this knowledge has come from laboratory models such as whipworm infection in the mouse. Using this model we have identified an unusual family of proteins called angiogenins known to be important in defence against bacteria and which we think are also anti-parasitic. Thus these proteins are only expressed at high levels in mice able to clear the infection; mice unable to rid themselves of worms do not make these proteins. We will explore these molecules in terms of their basic biology and role in defence against worms.