Scientists have revealed the genetic secrets of the filarial parasites that cause elephantiasis. Filarial parasites have affected more than 150 million people worldwide. Filaria is a long, thread-like worm that can live for years inside the human body and cause severe, debilitating diseases such as elephantiasis.
The larvae of these parasitic nematodes is spread from human to human by mosquitoes placing at risk more than a billion people who live in places in Africa, Asia and Latin America where filarial parasites thrive at large.
Now, a team of researchers funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has revealed the genetic secrets of one of these parasites. In the September 21, 2007 issue of Science, the researchers report solving the complete genome of Brugia malayi, one of the worms that causes the often debilitating disease elephantiasis. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 40 million people around the world are seriously incapacitated and disfigured by elephantiasis. The WHO also estimates that about half a million people around the world have lost their vision due to onchocerciasis, or river blindness, which is caused by another type of filarial parasite.
“Filarial diseases are treatable, but the current treatments were discovered decades ago,” says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “There is an urgent need for new discoveries in this area because of the limitations of the current drugs, including toxicities and the development of resistance.” The B. malayi genome reveals dozens of potential new targets for drugs or vaccines and should provide new opportunities for understanding, treating and preventing elephantiasis and similar diseases.
