Hoffmann, Karl F., Hokke, Cornelis H., Loukas, Alex, and Buck, Amy H. (2020) Helminth extracellular vesicles: great balls of wonder. International Journal for Parasitology, 50 (9). pp. 621-622.

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Abstract

[Extract] Parasitic helminths are large, metazoan pathogens responsible for some of the most chronic, disfiguring and neglected infectious human diseases on the planet. As helminths undergo complex migration and maturation processes during development in infected hosts, their ability to adapt and utilise excreted/secreted (E/S) products for molecular communication would seem to be an evolutionary advantage for lifecycle maintenance and transmission. In 2012, Marcilla et al. observed that the parasitic trematodes Echinostoma caproni and Fasciola hepatica could excrete/secrete extracellular vesicles (EVs) and that host cells (rat-derived, IEC-18 intestinal cell line) could bind and uptake E. caproni EVs (Marcilla et al., 2012). This seminal finding was followed by demonstration that EVs derived from the gastrointestinal nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus could suppress type II innate immune responses in vitro and in vivo, and the illumination of RNAs as an extracellular immunomodulatory molecule (Buck et al., 2014). Since then, a series of studies on Nematoda and Platyhelminthes have solidified the importance of parasitic helminth EVs in modulating host interactions and immune responses.

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