Authors

M Turner¹; KJ Else¹; KL Moore¹;  ¹ University of Manchester, UK

Discussion

Trichuris trichiura is a major public health concern infecting around half a billion people and causing the loss of around 640,000 Disability Adjusted Life Years. The parasite inhabits the caecum and proximal colon of infected individuals with its anterior end inhabiting an intracellular epithelial cell niche. Currently we do not know what the parasite feeds on, or even its main route of feeding. The parasite has a mouth but lacks a muscular pharynx, arguably making feeding through the mouth unlikely. Trichuris spp have a structure termed the bacillary band which runs two thirds of the circumference of its anterior end; the function of the bacillary band has long been debated and has been implicated in feeding.

NanoSIMS is a high-resolution secondary ion mass spectrometry instrument (beam size can be focused to 50nm) that can be used to image and measure elemental and isotopic distributions in samples at subcellular scale. It has extremely high sensitivity which makes it possible to detect elements at parts per million concentrations depending on the element. Stable isotope probing involves the exposure of a sample to a compound labelled with a stable isotope, then investigating the isotopic enrichment in the sample to infer mechanism of uptake and incorporation.

By exposing the whipworm to isotopically labelled nutrients and then imaging with the NanoSIMS, we aim to show which nutrients the whipworm utilises, and the mechanism of uptake, including the possible involvement of the bacillary band. Ascertaining the feeding mechanism of Trichuris spp will help identify novel drug targets. Further, we are also using NanoSIMS approaches to understand mechanisms of drug uptake and action