Emil Toma
University of Montreal, Canada
Title: Wolbachia: The fascinating, feminizing bacteria, new therapeutic and preventive avenues for filarial and some arthropod-borne infections
Biography
Biography: Emil Toma
Abstract
Wolbachia is an alpha-proteobacteria firstly described in 1924 by Hertig and Wolbac. It has a rickettsia-like microorganism in Culex mosquito. It was designated in 1936 by Hertig as Wolbachia pipientis, a new species. Sequence analysis of 16sRNA showed that this microorganism is related to Erlichia and Anaplasma. Wolbachia is a heritable bacterial endosymbiot utilizing the host reproductive system for its survival and dissemination. It is the intracellular parasite, the most widely spread in the animal world, infecting more than 90% of filarial nematodes and 40-70% of arthropods. In Filaria, an obligate nutritional mutualism, the most sophisticated form of symbiosis, was established during million years of evolution. Wolbachia and its surface proteins are implicated in the pathogenesis of filarial diseases and in the host immune response. The treatment of Wolbachia with tetracyclines is macro and microfilaricidal and is superior to antiparasitic therapies. In insects, there is a facultative symbiosis. Wolbachia enhances the resistance of insects (Aedes, Culex, Anopheles, Glossina) to viral or parasitic infections and diminishes sometimes the vectorial competence and infection transmission. Important basic and field research support the use of Wolbachia as an “environmentally –friendly†approach in the fight against vector-borne diseases such as Dengue, Chikungunya, West Nile fever, malaria.There is increasing world-wide interest and experience with Wolbachia in the treatment of filariasis and for the prevention of vector-borne diseases.
