ITRAQ Based Proteomic Analysis Of Schistosoma Japonicum Schistosomula After Artesunate Treatment

Schistosomiasis, an infectious disease caused by parasitic trematodes (schistosomes) dwelling in host’s mesenteric portal system and one of the seven most prevalent neglected tropic diseases, is a great public heath problem in over16countries of the tropics and subtropics. Globally, around249million people are currently infected with schistosomiasis, and about700million at risk of being infected. Although the efforts are made to control schistosomiasis in endemic areas, the global incidence of disease is still increasing. In China, Schistosomiasis japonica is also a major public health concern, approximately0.24million are infected in2012.Currently, chemotherapy offers the most feasible means of controlling human schistosomiasis, besides snail elimination. In China, many studies on drug screening show that artesunate (Art), a derivation of the antimalarial artemisinin, exhibit a high prophylactic efficacy against S. japonicum antischistosomal activities, since1990s. It has been previously reported that Art is efficacious especially for7-day-old S. japonicum schistosomula. Art have widely used to treat and cure schistosomiasis, but the exact molecular basis of Art anti-S. japonicum is still unknown.ObjectiveIn order to explore the action mechanisms of Art against S. japonicum schistosomula on the base of the whole protein of worms, isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) based proteomics technology was applied to identifying proteins of S. japonicum schistosomula in rabbits differentially expressed after Art treatment.MethodsRabbits were infected with2,000cercariae and orally administered with Art at a dose of8mg/kg on7days post infection. The parallel group trial was designed, only administered with1%sodium carboxymethylcellulose.10-day schistosomula were obtained from rabbits by perfusion and total protein was extracted. The proteins labeled by isobaric tags from two groups were identified by liquid chromatography coupled by tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The qRT-PCR was emloyed to confirm a part of differentially expressed proteins. Bioinformatics analysis of differentially expressed proteins was made and their functions were confirmed by database searching. ResultsThere were75proteins (including3uncharacterized proteins) differentially expressed in present study.23up-regulated proteins and52down-regulated proteins were found after Art treatment. The validation results of differentially expressed proteins by qRT-PCR were consistent with iTRAQ identifications. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the differentially expressed proteins were mainly involved in metabolic processes, regulation of biological process and cellular homeostasis, moreover, those proteins also played an important role in stress response, cell organization and biogenesis, etc.ConclusioniTRAQ was employed to study on differentially expressed proteins from schistosomula in rabbits treated with Art for the first time. The result of this study might provide new insights into exploration of the molecular basis of Art anti-S. japonicum schistosomula.