A parasitic worm in your brain - is this the stuff of nightmares. But for some unfortunate is a reality. Recently, it was reality for a man in Britain.
The human brain holds the rare tapeworm, Spirometra erinaceieuropaei for four years. The infection was only 300th appearance - only the second in Europe - from the particular parasite was discovered in 1953, now has 300. tapeworm, a human brain penetrate the first to be genetically sequenced.
Although many of them are repetitive, the kind of "recently sequenced genome is ten times longer than other scientists hope tapeworm genome analysis, it will help them better understand the strategies of strange worm life cycle and invasion -. And also how to better fight its presence with modern medicine.
"For unknown group of tapeworms is the first genome sequenced and allowed us to some predictions about the likelihood activity are known drugs," said Dr. Matt Berriman, a researcher at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, . said in a press release "the genome sequence suggests that the parasite is a natural resistance to albendazole - .. an existing anti-tapeworm, many new drug targets that are being studied for other tapeworms are present in this parasite, however, and future clinical options could offer "
Berriman is the lead author of a new study on the worm, which was published this week in the journal Genome Biology.
Scientists believe that the tapeworm enters the brain of patients who consume infected freshwater shellfish or raw meat of reptiles and amphibians. People can also be infected if you poultice to soothe a sore eyes first frog, an ancient Chinese remedy. The infection is more common in Asia. This particular type of tapeworm not take the host tissue - it is without a mouth - but simply absorbs nutrients the brain.
Scientists have noticed the strange worm mass in the brain scans after the 50-year-old man of Chinese origin but lives in East Anglia, continue to complain of headaches. Through a series of analyzes, they saw the worm passage of the brain on the right side to the left. You he finally extracted a biopsy and sent by the worm geneticist at Trust Sanger.
"We do not expect to see an infection of this type in the UK, but global travel means that unknown parasite sometimes appear," said Dr. Effrossyni Gkrania Klotsas-author of the study and physician at 'Addenbrookes hospital Division of Infectious Diseases, Cambridge. "We can now diagnose Sparganosis with MRI, but that does not mean that the information that we need to get the exact tapeworm species and their vulnerability to us."
"Our work shows that even when only small amounts of DNA from clinical samples, we can know what we need to identify and characterize the parasite," added Gkrania-Klotsas. "This highlights the importance of a global database to the genomes to enable us to identify the pest and the best course of treatment."
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