Authors

Discussion

Fasciola hepatica, the common liver fluke, is a global zoonotic parasite that currently infects over 17 million people and costs global farming in excess of $3 billion annually. At present, fluke control is hampered by inadequate diagnosis based primarily on faecal egg counting or problematic antibody based tests. These tests do not detect the juvenile pathogenic liver fluke responsible for the acute disease phase. Therefore, improving diagnostics is likely to enhance both control and sustainability of anthelmintics in absence of vaccines and spreading drug resistance.

The over-arching objective is to develop a novel instrumentation system, based on ellipsometry, capable of helminth disease diagnostics utilising protein-protein interactions. Previous studies at Aberystwyth University provided proof of principle and showed that ‘Imaging Ellipsometry’ could realise a label free, real time method of detecting model protein interaction at a nanometre scale. The research equipment is now being optimised to discover if protein interactions can be measured for key biomarkers from F. hepatica a) Sigma GST, a well characterised secreted liver fluke protein. b) Extracellular Vesicles (in conjunction with Atomic Force Microscopy).

The wider impact of this research is a novel approach to rapid diagnostic testing and can also offer opportunities for increased understanding of wider protein-protein interactions, protein function analysis and anthelmintic development.