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。它们影响牲畜的健康和生产力，从而给社会带来巨大的经济成本。虽然蠕虫感染可以用药物清除，但动物会再次感染，而且随着蠕虫产生抗药性，许多药物正在失去效力。此外，消费者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开始出现。这些知识大部分来自实验室模型，如鞭虫感染小鼠。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，已知它在防御细菌方面很重要，我们认为它也是抗寄生虫的。因此，这些蛋白质仅在能够清除感染的小鼠中以高水平表达;无法清除蠕虫的小鼠不会产生这些蛋白质。我们将探讨这些分子的基本生物学和防御蠕虫的作用。

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.