Lower Vertebrate Immunostimulation and effects on host-parasite interactions

低等脊椎动物的免疫刺激及其对宿主-寄生虫相互作用的影响

• 批准号: 402288-2012
• 负责人: Fast, Mark
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: University of Prince Edward Island
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=573230
• 关键词: Lower; Vertebrate; Immunostimulation; effects; host

Atlantic salmon farming contributes over $600 million annually to the Canadian economy. The industry is controversial due to the perceived damage it causes to the environment, in part, through the spread of sea lice, Lepeophtheirus salmonis infections to wild stocks. Losses to Canadian industry, attributed to L. salmonis infection and the associated cost of chemotherapeutic treatment, have been estimated at more than $50 million/yr. Therefore, sea lice infection in farmed salmon is both an important environmental and economic issue, especially within coastal communities and First Nations. Over the last two decades only a handful of different treatments against sea lice have been available, the most effective treatment, through the early part of the new millennium, was an in-feed treatment called SLICETM (Schering-Plough), which now has exhibited inefficacy due to resistance by sea lice in numerous countries over the past couple years. Any new treatment regime, vaccine or immunostimulant that can provide significant protection, would have immediate economic impact and improve Canadian salmon farming industry efficiency of production and sustainability. 'Silver bullet' vaccine strategies are unlikely for a complex metazoan parasite, however, we currently lack detailed knowledge of key parasitic processes in host selection and host modulation/maintenance and the immunogenicity of parasitic compounds therein, for sea lice. Crossing this barrier will open up the possibility of combinatorial strategies, whereby disguising host recognition molecules can be combined with targeting host innate signaling and responsiveness in concert with specific long-term parasite pathway disruption through multivalent vaccination. The goals of this research program are to understand copepod parasite settlement dynamics, settlement 'choice', and evolutionary pressures on the parasite-host interaction. Furthermore, this program seeks to put this knowledge to the continual test of developing applications for the aquaculture industry.

大西洋鲑鱼养殖业每年为加拿大经济贡献超过6亿美元。该行业备受争议，因为人们认为它对环境造成了破坏，部分原因是海虱的传播，以及对野生种群的鲑鱼感染。加拿大工业的损失，归因于沙门氏菌感染和相关的化疗治疗费用，估计每年超过5000万美元。因此，养殖鲑鱼中的海虱感染是一个重要的环境和经济问题，特别是在沿海社区和原住民中。在过去的二十年里，只有几种不同的治疗方法可以用来治疗海虱，但在新千年初期，最有效的治疗方法是一种名为SLICETM(先灵葆雅)的饲料治疗方法，过去几年来，由于海虱的耐药性，这种疗法现在已经在许多国家显示出无效。任何能够提供重大保护的新的治疗方案、疫苗或免疫刺激剂都将立即产生经济影响，并提高加拿大三文鱼养殖业的生产效率和可持续性。 对于复杂的后生动物寄生虫，银弹疫苗策略不太可能实现，然而，我们目前缺乏关于寄主选择和寄主调制/维护的关键寄生过程以及其中寄生化合物对海虱的免疫原性的详细知识。跨越这一障碍将打开组合策略的可能性，借此伪装宿主识别分子可以与靶向宿主固有信号和反应性相结合，从而通过多价疫苗结合特定的长期寄生虫途径破坏。这项研究计划的目标是了解桡足类寄生虫的定居动态、定居“选择”和对寄生虫-宿主相互作用的进化压力。此外，该计划寻求将这些知识用于开发水产养殖业的应用程序的持续测试。