Figures
Schistosomula of Schistosoma mansoni feeding on red blood cells.
Schistosome parasites are the causative agents of schistosomiasis, a global disease affecting more than 200 million people worldwide. Free-swimming infectious cercariae exit a freshwater snail to find a mammalian host, and upon penetration of host skin, lose their tail, transform into schistosomula (seen in the image), and mature into adult worms. In Milligan and Jolly, the Mef2 protein, a conserved schistosome transcriptional activator, is identified and described, and may have potential as a drug target to treat schistosome infection.
Image Credit: John N. Milligan (Case Western Reserve University)
Citation: (2012) PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Issue Image | Vol. 6(1) January 2012. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 6(1): ev06.i01. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pntd.v06.i01
Published: January 26, 2012
Copyright: © 2012 Milligan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Schistosome parasites are the causative agents of schistosomiasis, a global disease affecting more than 200 million people worldwide. Free-swimming infectious cercariae exit a freshwater snail to find a mammalian host, and upon penetration of host skin, lose their tail, transform into schistosomula (seen in the image), and mature into adult worms. In Milligan and Jolly, the Mef2 protein, a conserved schistosome transcriptional activator, is identified and described, and may have potential as a drug target to treat schistosome infection.
Image Credit: John N. Milligan (Case Western Reserve University)