Interação entre Angiostrongylus cantonensis e Angiostrongylus costaricensis (Nematoda; Metastrongyloidea) com moluscos hospedeiros intermediários e pesquisa de biomarcadores de infecção

Abstract

Angiostrongylus cantonensis and A. costaricensis can accidentally infect humans causing eosinophilic meningitis and abdominal angiostrongyliasis, respectively. Both species have several mollusks as intermediate hosts. Diagnosing the infection requires killing the mollusks, interfering in conservational and population dynamics studies. This work had the objective to demonstrate possible biological markers in infected intermediate hosts, as well as to investigate specific factors related to the parasite-host relationship of mollusks and Angiostrongylus parasites. Mollusks of the Veronicellidae family were infected with A. cantonensis L1. Mucus and feces from these infected and uninfected animals were used for differential expression analysis of proteins using mass spectrometry and the microbiome profile analysis was performed through the 16S gene sequencing, respectively. LC-MS/MS spectrometry analysis showed an increase in F-BAR proteins subfamily and a decrease in the elongation factor of Mycoplasma spp. Microbiome of feces from infected slugs presented a decrease of the Bacteroidetes phylum. We have also analyzed the microbiome profile of Biomphalaria glabrata feces infected with A. cantonensis and Schistosoma mansoni. We could observe a decrease of Vogesella genus. When infected with S. mansoni, a reduction of Mycoplasma and Nitrospira genera and an increase in Niabella genus could be demonstrated. In both infections, decrease of Fluviicola genus and increase of organisms of the Weeksellaceae family were significant. Our results showed that proteins and microorganisms could be promising biomarkers of A. cantonensis infection in intermediate hosts in vivo. During the collection of the mollusks, the invasive species Meghimatium pictum infected with A. costaricensis was found, associated to a case of abdominal angiostrongyliasis, reported in this thesis. Parallel to this study, the postures of Limax sp. and Phyllocaulis sp. were registered to investigate the embryogenesis of these animals. In postures and in decomposing mollusks, mites of the species Caloglyphus berlesei were also identified and this association was observed for the first time.