Neurocysticercosis: Diagnostics and vaccine
development against the tapeworm, Taenia solium
Jenna Anderson
The pig tapeworm, Taenia solium, infects over fifty million people and a countless number of pigs worldwide. Humans become infected by consuming infected pork (resulting in the intestinal infection, called taeniasis) or by ingesting fertilized tapeworm eggs which mature to larvae in the body (resulting in muscle infection, called cysticercosis). When the brain becomes infected with larvae, the disease neurocysticercosis (NCC) results. NCC is characterized by a range of symptoms due to the number, location, and particular host; in its most severe form, seizure, epilepsy, oedema, and even death can occur. Epilepsy is especially associated with NCC and one aim of this project was to identify NCC cases using the enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay method and compare the percentage of cases in an epileptic population from Vietnam with results from previous studies. It was shown that enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay is a seful method for diagnosing NCC infection and furthermore, the results from
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this study supported previous stud es explorin e ileps a d NCC in Asia.
Even when properly diagnosed, treatment of NCC is difficult. Medications primarily target the disease’s symptoms due to difficulty in treating the infection itself; this difficulty is often amplified when the cysticerci (larvae) calcify.
Although no vaccine against T. solium infection in either pigs or humans exists, it is agreed that an effective vaccine could provide the best solution to this global problem. A porcine vaccine could be particularly successful by preventing transmission of the disease to humans while also reducing economical loss in the swine industry. Importantly, any vaccine against T. solium infection must be designed with the challenges of the developing world in mind, since the majority of infections originate there. It is also hypothesized that a successful neurocysticercosis vaccine would target the mucosal immune system and mirror the natural introduction of the disease itself. Therefore, another aim of this project was to create edible porcine vaccines against T. solium using two proteins: One, a well‐characterized antigenic protein found on cysticerci (Tsol18) and two, a novel protein that shows antigenic promise (Tsol15). A vector containing Tsol15 was developed and used to transform the plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. DNA analysis showed success of the transformation and a new generation of plants is growing to verify retention of the vector construct.
Furthermore, protein analysis of A. thaliana transformed with a Tsol18 construct was performed and suggested the presence of the protein in the second generation of plants. Research must continue to verify this conclusively but results look promising.
