Understanding drug resistance in multicellular parasites

我们研究计划的目标是开发工具，使加拿大的绵羊和牛生产者能够更好地科普寄生蛔虫感染，这种感染通常会降低其牲畜的健康和盈利能力。放牧牲畜经常感染污染牧场的寄生性胃肠道蛔虫。由胃肠道蛔虫引起的疾病从轻微的，减少生长和盈利能力，到严重的，导致牲畜死亡。直到最近，生产商都相信他们可以用廉价有效的驱虫药成功地治疗蛔虫寄生虫，其中最广泛使用的药物之一是伊维菌素。伊维菌素在控制人类和牲畜寄生虫感染方面的重要性反映在2015年诺贝尔奖授予发现它的研究人员上。不幸的是，寄生虫正在迅速对伊维菌素产生抗药性，有可能逆转通过使用它所取得的健康成果。如果生产商使用伊维菌素治疗感染耐药寄生虫的牲畜，动物将继续遭受寄生虫的折磨，生产商将浪费时间和金钱在无效的药物上。一种便宜、方便的诊断测试将大大提高生产者的能力：1）选择最有效的治疗方法，2）以最大限度地减少耐药性的延续和传播的方式管理牛群。开发这样的测试需要了解伊维菌素耐药性的遗传基础。

The goal of our research program is to develop tools that will allow Canadian sheep and cattle producers to better cope with parasitic roundworm infections that commonly reduce the health and profitability of their stock. Grazing livestock are frequently infected with parasitic gastrointestinal roundworms that contaminate pastures. The disease caused by gastrointestinal roundworms ranges from mild, reducing growth and profitability, to severe, leading to the death of livestock. Until recently, producers were confident that they could successfully treat roundworm parasites with inexpensive, effective de-worming drugs, of which one of the most widely used is ivermectin. Ivermectin’s importance in controlling parasite infections in both humans and livestock was reflected in the 2015 Nobel Prize awarded to the researchers who discovered it. Unfortunately, parasites are rapidly evolving resistance to ivermectin, threatening to reverse the health gains achieved through its use. If producers use ivermectin to treat livestock infected with resistant parasites, animals continue to suffer from parasites and the producer will have wasted time and money on an ineffective drug. An inexpensive, convenient diagnostic test would greatly improve the ability of producers to: 1) choose the most effective treatments, and 2) to manage herds in ways that minimize the perpetuation and spread of drug resistance. To develop such a test requires an understanding of the genetic basis of ivermectin resistance.