Authors
K Lee1; N Muller-Sienerth2; J Shilts2; GJ Wright3; C Crosnier3; 1 Department of Biology, University of York, UK; 2 Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK; 3 YBRI and Department of Biology, University of York, UK Discussion
To establish chronic infections, parasites must develop efficient strategies to escape destruction by their host’s immune system. One of these evasion mechanisms is to trigger signalling through cell surface and secreted proteins to subvert the host immune response. Identifying the parasite proteins generating these modulatory signals and the host immune receptors with which they interact could not only provide new targets for vaccine development against parasitic diseases, but also new therapeutic leads in the control of allergic and auto-immune conditions. To identify new immunomodulatory pathways, we have recently performed a systematic protein:protein interaction study between a library of 750 human surface receptors representing the membrane-tethered repertoire of leukocytes, and extracellular protein libraries from two major parasites able to establish chronic infection, Schistosoma mansoni and Plasmodium falciparum. New host:parasite interactions were identified, which are currently being characterised biochemically and functionally. These resources provide a new platform to identify extracellular host:parasite interactions. 
