University of Virginia Health System researchers released a study Friday concluding that blocking a protein could stop a cell-eating parasite from infecting human colons. The parasite, entamoeba histolytica, causes amebiasis, which contributes to the deaths of the approximately two million children under the age of five who die of diarrheal diseases each year.
William Petri, division chief of infectious disease at the University, has been working to understand the cell biology of the parasite for the last 20 years. The parasite follows "a very ordered and sequential process by which [it] kills human cells," Petri said. According to Petri, the parasite leads cells to commit "cell suicide" and then eats the corpses of the dead cells.
"That's how [the parasite] hides its tracks," Petri said, noting that since the parasite destroys the remnants of the cells it kills, carriers of amebiasis can display no symptoms for up to six months after contracting the disease.
Doug Boettner, a doctoral student and the lead researcher of the study that included graduate students Alicia Linford and Sarah Buss, identified the protein, which is believed to contribute to the final destruction of the cell, Petri said.
Buss used confocal microscopy to show that the protein identified by Boettner was in contact with the human cell at the time of infection, identifying the "site of the crime," Petri said. Next, according to Petri, Linford used a new molecular technique called RNA interference, to block the protein. As a result, the parasite could not eat the dead cells and was unable to colonize and infect the colon.
Petri suggested that knowledge of the protein would be helpful in creating the vaccine against the disease, adding that work has already begun on a vaccine.
Currently, Petri is collaborating with Medicine Prof. Eric Houpt to develop a vaccine for amebiasis. They have a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health in order to develop a prototype vaccine to undergo initial testing.
Eddie Moreno, another Ph.D. student researching the molecular biology of the parasite, said amebiasis could affect both the colon and the liver.
"The parasite kills the cells and the tissue as it invades [the colon] and sometimes it will end up in the liver," causing liver infection, Moreno added.
Moreno said the parasite thrives in regions with unsanitary water. People affected by the disease in the United States tend to be travelers or immigrants from developing countries that lack water sanitation who carried the disease to the United States.
To research these unsanitary waters, part of Petri's research lab is located in Bangladesh to study the effects of the disease on 300 children. Petri's lab research showed that an acquired immunity is developed after exposure to the disease. He hopes that these findings will help contribute to finding a vaccine.
"We focus on children because the biggest health problem in the world is children dying before their fifth birthday," he said. "Each year 10 million children die before the age of five, and one-fifth to one-third of those deaths are directly linked to diarrheal diseases"
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