[Research progress on the mechanisms of antigenic variation in Giardia lamblia].
The intestinal protozoan parasite Giardia lamblia is one of the most common causes of diarrhoea and undergoes antigenic variation. In pathogenic microorganisms, antigenic variation is often described as a mechanism to evade the host immune system, resulting in chronic and/or recurrent infections. In the recent years, significant advances in the knowledge of the antigen switching process have been achieved. Here we review the principal knowledge on the mechanisms that regulate this process, including genomic organization, post-transcriptional gene silencing, expressional modifications, and processing and turnover of VSPs.
Department of Pathogen Biology, Jilin Medical College, Jilin 132013 China. xianminfeng@yahoo.cn
Xian-Min
XM
Feng
Yue-Hua
YH
Wang
Xiao-Hong
XH
Ju
D000818:Animals; D000940:Antigenic Variation; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D000954:Antigens, Surface / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D016829:Giardia lamblia / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology
D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D000954:Antigens, Surface