Breakthrough gives hope of new treatments for tropical disease
Posted on 16 July 2009
The discovery published today in Nature is a major step towards helping scientists to identify novel drug targets, and is essential for vaccine development.
New drugs are urgently needed to help control the disease
Professor Alan Wilson
Schistosomiasis is a debilitating disease, affecting up to 200 million people in Asia, Africa and South America, mainly people without running water or sanitation. The parasite enters the human body through the skin when people come into contact with fresh water where the infective stage is found. Specific snails are essential intermediate hosts for the parasite, and determine its distribution.
The worms live in the blood vessels between the intestine and the liver. The eggs they lay can trigger a series of pathological changes in the infected individual. These can result in severe liver damage, internal bleeding, anaemia and sometimes death.
Professor Alan Wilson, who heads the Schistosomiasis Research Group at York, said: “The danger of relying on a single drug for treatment is that the parasite can build up a resistance to it. New drugs are urgently needed to help control the disease, while the holy grail is the development of a vaccine to help to eradicate schistosomiasis. Sequencing the genome is an important step towards those goals.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- The University of York’s Department of Biology is one of the leading centres for biological teaching and research in the UK. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, it was ranked equal first among broad spectrum bioscience departments in the UK for quality that was judged to be world-leading. The Department both teaches degree courses and undertakes research across the whole spectrum of modern Biology, from molecular genetics and biochemistry to ecology. Its biomedical research includes an Immunology and Infection Unit (jointly with the Hull York Medical School), work on infertility and three research professors funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research and York Against Cancer.