The publication comes a few weeks after the team, led by the LBL scientists, identified the high degree of similarity between the mouse and human stretches of DNA that regulate expression of the genes. These findings were published in the April 7 issue of the journal Science. Over the past decade a powerful principle has emerged that genes shared by evolutionarily distant species may play major roles for the organisms and provide a window to understand basic genetic mechanisms. The research by the UCSF and LBL team extends that principle to the non-gene portions of the genome. The resulting transgenic mouse strains showed normal lymph system development, the researchers reported.
Hookworms are a major world parasite, infecting nearly a billion people.
The half-inch worms commonly bore into the body through bare feet and make their way to the gut where they reproduce. A female can produce more than 20,000 eggs per day. The interleukins regulate the intestinal immune response to the worms, and combine to orchestrate smooth muscle contraction, production of mucus and attack by immune cells that together lead to expulsion of the worms, Locksley explained. Intestinal worms infect essentially all infants and children in developing countries and some scientists believe this type of immune response can become misdirected, no longer playing the role it probably evolved to play but focusing instead on viruses and allergens inhaled in the respiratory tract. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.