Parasitology Reference and Research Laboratory, Centro Nacional de Microbiología, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain.
Escuela Internacional de Doctorado, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain.
Parasit Vectors. 2022 Mar 28;15(1):110. doi: 10.1186/s13071-022-05211-z.
Helminth infections impact the health of hundreds of millions of persons globally and also cause important economic losses in livestock farming. Methodological limitations as well as the low attention given to the study of helminths have impacted biological research and, thus, the procurement of accurate diagnosis and effective treatments. Understanding the biology of helminths using genomic and proteomic approaches could contribute to advances in understanding host-helminth interactions and lead to new vaccines, drugs and diagnostics. Despite the significant advances in genomics in the last decade, the lack of methodological adaptation of current transgenesis techniques has hampered the progression of post-genomic research in helminthology. However, the application of new techniques, such as CRISPR, to the study of trematodes and nematodes has opened new avenues for genome editing-powered functional genomics for these pathogens. This review summarises the historical advances in functional genomics in parasitic helminths and highlights pending limitations that will need to be overcome to deploy transgenesis tools.
寄生虫感染影响着数亿人的健康，也给畜牧业造成了重大经济损失。方法学上的局限性以及对寄生虫研究的重视程度不足，影响了生物学研究，从而也影响了准确诊断和有效治疗方法的获取。利用基因组学和蛋白质组学方法来了解寄生虫的生物学特性，有助于增进对宿主与寄生虫相互作用的理解，并为新疫苗、药物和诊断方法的研发提供助力。尽管在过去十年中基因组学取得了重大进展，但当前转基因技术的方法学适应性不足，阻碍了寄生虫学后基因组研究的进展。然而，CRISPR 等新技术在吸虫和线虫研究中的应用，为这些病原体的基于基因组编辑的功能基因组学开辟了新途径。本文总结了寄生虫功能基因组学的历史进展，并强调了为了部署转基因工具尚待克服的局限性。
