title: Effect of Angiostrongylus vasorum infection on Biomphalaria tenagophila susceptibility to Schistosoma mansoni.
abstract: Concomitant infection with different parasites may be a helpful laboratorial strategy leading to the better understanding of the mechanisms used by the internal defense system (IDS) of Gastropoda to deal with helminth infection, such as Schistosoma mansoni. This work reports the effect of co-infection of Angiostrongylus vasorum and S. mansoni in hemocyte activity and in the outcome of infection. The simultaneous infection resulted in an increase of snail susceptibility to S. mansoni. In contrast, snails infected with both parasites, 15 days apart, did not show differences in the susceptibility compared to a single parasite infection. The increased susceptibility was measured by the significantly higher number of migrating sporocysts, higher percentage of snails shedding cercariae, higher number of cercariae shed and higher mortality in the experimental group that were simultaneously infected with A. vasorum and S. mansoni, when compared to snails infected only with S. mansoni. Snails simultaneously infected with A. vasorum and S. mansoni showed lower hemocyte activation during the first few days of infection, compared to activation induced only by A. vasorum infection. Between 5 and 15 days post-infection (dpi), granulocyte number and nitric oxide (NO) contents of simultaneously infected snails were lower than the S. mansoni-infected snails. Based on the results, we suggest that differences in the level of hemocyte response could explain the increased S. mansoni susceptibility observed in snails simultaneously infected with both parasites. However, when S. mansoni infection occurred after A. vasorum larvae are completely encapsulated, the response against S. mansoni was not altered, and therefore there were no differences in the susceptibility level.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas (ICB), Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Av. Presidente Antônio Carlos 6627, Campus Pampulha, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte-MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: C A J
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Martins-Souza
authors.forename: P M Z
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Coelho
authors.forename: W S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Lima
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Negrão-Corrêa
mesh_terms: D000801:Angiostrongylus / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001700:Biomphalaria / Q000469:parasitology*; D006434:Hemocytes; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism; D012550:Schistosoma mansoni / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D009569:Nitric Oxide