Acanthocheilonema viteae

Acanthocheilonema viteae is a species of parasitic nematodes.

Acanthocheilonema viteae, previously Dipetalonema viteae, is a rodent filarial worm that is often used as a model to study human filarial infections. Filarial nematodes are the causative agents of filariases, tropical diseases that afflict about 160 million people worldwide. Currently, there are neither safe and efficient drugs nor vaccines available to eliminate or prevent these infections, which makes the development of new control strategies a priority (Tachu et al., 2008).

Acanthocheilonema viteae is an animal parasite. These filarial nematodes and their animal hosts are often used as models for studies on the biology of human infection. Acanthocheilonema viteae shares considerable antigenic homology with the human filarial worm Onchocerca volvulus; this allows for rapid analysis of larval development which is essential to efforts in vaccine development (Eisenbeiss et al., 1991).

Research

Acanthocheilonema viteae is one of the few filaroids that do not bear Wolbachia bacteria. Infection with Wolbachia is essential to the continued good health and reproduction of their nematode hosts. Molecular studies suggest that Acanthocheilonema viteae either lost their symbionts before they became essential or diverged from other filaroids before Wolbachia acquisition (Schmidt and Roberts, 2009). More recent research found Wolbachia-like sequences in the genomes of Acanthocheilonema viteae, some of which were transcribed in developing embryos and testes of the nematode, which suggested horizontal transfer of genetic material from an ancestral bacterial endosymbiont (McNulty et al., 2010)

References

Eisenbeiss, Wilhelm F., Apfel, H. and T. F. Meyer. Recovery, Distribution, and Development of Acanthocheilonema viteae Third- and Early Fourth-Stage Larvae in Adult Jirds. The Journal of Parasitology. 1991 77(1): 580-586

McNulty SN, Foster JM, Mitreva M, Dunning Hotopp JC, Martin J, Fischer K, Wu B, Davis PJ, Kumar S, Brattig NW, Slatko BE, Weil GJ, Fischer PU. Endosymbiont DNA in endobacteria-free filarial nematodes indicates ancient horizontal genetic transfer. PLoS One. 2010 Jun 9;5(6):e11029

Schmidt, Gerald D. and Larry S. Roberts. Foundations of Parasitology. 8th edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009.

Tachu, Babila, Smitha Pillai, Richard Lucius, and Thomas Pogonka. Essential Role of Chitinase in the Development of the Filarial Nematode Acanthocheilonema viteae. Infection and Immunity. 2008 76(1): 221-228.