Authors

M Pawlowic¹;  ¹ University of Dundee, UK

Discussion

Cryptosporidium is an apicomplexan parasite that causes diarrheal disease, and is especially dangerous in young, malnourished children and immunocompromised adults. Unfortunately, there is no vaccine and no effective treatments for these patient populations. One of the major hurdles in advancing our understanding of the biology of this parasite, as well as developing new therapeutics, is lack of a simple, continuous in vitro culture system. Current co-culture of Cryptosporidium with a transformed intestinal cell line supports limited parasite growth with a parasite life cycle arrest at fertilisation. Over the past five years, many groups have explored the use of organoid-based culture systems, and report success in observation of the full parasite life cycle. We will discuss these new models, both the possibilities and limitations. In addition to some of the published organoid culture models, the Pawlowic lab is implementing the use of human intestinal organoid model in collaboration with the Thorne Lab (University of Arizona) for co-culture with Cryptosporidium. The organoid monolayer organises into zones of proliferation and differentiation, containing all main intestinal cell types. We will report the results of establishing this model and our insights about challenges encountered along the way. This model permits the use of live imaging. Coupled with sophisticated image analysis tools, we believe this model will allow for expanded insight into parasite biology and advance the development of new anti-cryptosporidial therapeutics.