The physiology of infection with nematodes: the role of intracellular pH in the development of the early parasitic stage

Untargeted Multimodal Metabolomics Investigation of the Haemonchus contortus Exsheathment Secretome

In nematodes that invade the gastro-intestinal tract of the ruminant, the process of larval exsheathment marks the transition from the free-living to the parasitic stages of these parasites. To investigate the secretome associated with larval exsheathment, a closed in vitro system that effectively reproduces the two basic components of an anaerobic rumen environment (CO2 and 39 °C) was developed to trigger exsheathment in one of the most pathogenic and model gastrointestinal parasitic nematodes, Haemonchus contortus (barber‘s pole worm). This study reports the use of multimodal untargeted metabolomics and lipidomics methodologies to identify the metabolic signatures and compounds secreted during in vitro larval exsheathment in the H. contortus infective third-stage larva (iL3). A combination of statistical and chemoinformatic analyses using three analytical platforms revealed a panel of metabolites detected post exsheathment and associated with amino acids, purines, as well as select organic compounds. The major lipid classes identified by the non-targeted lipidomics method applied were lysophosphatidylglycerols, diglycerides, fatty acyls, glycerophospholipids, and a triglyceride. The identified metabolites may serve as metabolic signatures to improve tractability of parasitic nematodes for characterizing small molecule host–parasite interactions related to pathogenesis, vaccine and drug design, as well as the discovery of metabolic biomarkers.

External stimuli and intracellular signalling in the modification of the nematode surface during transition to the mammalian host environment

Previous work has shown that the surface of infective larvae of parasitic nematodes will not bind the fluorescent lipid analogue 5-N-(octadecanoyl)aminofluorescein (AF18) until after exposure of the parasite to mammalian tissue-culture conditions. In this study, culture media which are permissive or non-permissive for the acquisition of lipophilicity for AF18 were altered in order to examine possible stimuli involved. This showed that external alkaline pH and high sodium ion concentration were highly stimulatory. The internal signalling pathways which may be involved in the surface alteration were then examined using agents which are known to affect intracellular signalling in mammalian cells. The results indicated that elevation of cGMP levels was stimulatory whereas inhibition of a putative Na+/H+ antiporter or calcium mobilization was inhibitory, and it is argued that high intracellular levels of cAMP may be inhibitory. Whilst the precise effects of the agents used on nematode cells remain to be established, these results provide a framework for the examination of the processes involved in the modification of the nematode surface which takes place immediately after the infection event.

Acidic intracellular pH shift during Caenorhabditis elegans larval development

During recovery from the developmentally arrested, nonfeeding dauer stage of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, metabolic activation is accompanied by a decrease in intracellular pH (pHi). Phosphorus-31 nuclear magnetic resonance (31P NMR) analyses of perchloric acid extracts show that inorganic phosphate predominates in dauer larvae, whereas ATP and other high-energy metabolites are abundant within 6 hr after dauer larvae have been placed in food to initiate development. Although metabolic activation has been associated with an alkaline pHi shift in other organisms, in vivo 31P NMR analysis of recovering dauer larvae shows a pHi decrease from approximately 7.3 to approximately 6.3 within 3 hr after the animals encounter food. This shift occurs before feeding begins, and it coincides with, or soon follows, the developmental commitment to recover from the dauer stage, suggesting that control of pHi may be important in the regulation of larval development in nematodes.

The nature and action of host signals

It is clear that excystations in vitro of the coccidia so far examined involves two steps, in the first of which CO2 is important, and the second, in which an external source of chymotrypsin and surface-active agents are required. However, the details of the mechanism of excystment are not clear. We do not know how the presence of CO2 changes the permeability of the oocyst wall. We do not know whether CO2 does anything to the sporozoite or sporocyst; the circumstance that mechanically-released sporocysts readily excyst under appropriate conditions without the necessity for high concentrations of, or perhaps any, CO2 suggests it does not. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the substrate in which chymotrypsin acts is the Stieda body, but whether the enzyme has other roles we do not know. Similarly, the role of bile is ill-defined, although it does seem that the induction of activity is important--but how is this brought about? The techniques available to excyst oocysts are, for many species, very efficient. If CO2 is, as it seems to be, a fundamental stimulus, then efficiency might be enhanced if more attention was given, not so much to increasing the time of exposure and amount of CO2 in the gas phase, but rather to the pH of the medium, which is rarely stated or apparently, controlled. The pH determines the proportion of the different carbonate species in solution, which may be of greater significance than the partial pressure of CO2 in the gas phase (see also Section V A). Although high numbers of excysted sporocysts can be obtained with a particular technique, this does not necessarily mean that all the signals supplied by the host are reproduced in vitro. Jackson (1962) found it necessary to wash oocysts in water or dilute buffers between the primary phase and the secondary phase, a step which implies a deficiency in the methods he used. Commonly, oocysts are exposed to a strong solution of L-cysteine. Does this reflect a general deficiency in the technique, or a counterpart of strongly reducing conditions in ruminant and non-ruminant alike? It seems that we have only a very general outline of excystment, and that we do not understand the details. Yet the problem seems to have been put aside; the most recent relevant reference we have found is dated 1983.