Peter ME et al. (1997) Cell Death Differ "Does the Caenorhabditis elegans protein CED-4 contain a region of homology to the mammalian death effector domain?"

Peter ME, Krammer PH, Medema JP

[Cell Death Differ, 1997]

The elucidatin of the apoptosis pathway in the nematode C. elegans has been helpful to understand apoptosis signaling pathways in higher eukaryotes. In the worm three genes ced-3, -4 and -9 are involved in regulating the execution of apoptosis during development. Ced-3 codes for a protease homologous to the caspase family. CED-3 activity is negatively regulated by CED-9 which is homologous both structurally and functionally to Bcl-2 and other Bcl-2 family members such as Bcl-xL. To exert its function CED-9 requires the presence of CED-4, another apoptosis promoting factor....

Loedige I et al. (2009) Cell "TRIM-NHL proteins take on miRNA regulation."

Filipowicz W, Loedige I

[Cell, 2009]

The TRIM-NHL family of proteins is conserved among metazoans and has been shown to regulate cell proliferation and development. In this issue, Hammell et al. (2009) and Schwamborn et al. (2009) identify two members of this protein family, NHL-2 in worms and TRIM32 in mice, as positive regulators of microRNA function.

Kazura JW (2016) Am J Trop Med Hyg "Onchocerciasis Elimination from Africa: One Step in Northern Sudan."

Kazura JW

[Am J Trop Med Hyg, 2016]

Onchocerciasis is one of the two filarial helminth "neglected tropical diseases" (the other being lymphatic filariasis) that has been targeted for geographically local elimination followed by global eradication. The last known areas of Onchocerca volvulus transmission in the Americas have recently been reported to be eliminated. In contrast, achieving metrics for interruption of O. volvulus transmission in Africa, thus removing the requirement for continued monitoring and mass drug administration (MDA) with ivermectin, has been more challenging. To date, transmission cessation of O. volvulus has been validated only in the Mount Elgon region of eastern Uganda. Annual and biannual ivermectin MDA was delivered in this endemic focus from 1994 to 2011, in combination with sustained vector control aimed at reducing the local larval Simulium neavei vectors that have a phoretic association with freshwater crabs. Subsequent to this accomplishment, the World Health Organization (WHO) updated in 2016 the criteria for stopping MDA as a result of transmission interruption. The technical procedures and the corresponding cutoff values to signify transmission interruption included the following: 1) screening pools of black flies by polymerase chain reaction for the DNA repeat sequence Ov150; minimal elimination value is < 1/2,000 Ov150-positive flies and 2) serologic screening of school-aged children < 10 years of age for immunoglobulin G4 antibodies to the Ov16 antigen; elimination value is antibody prevalence < 0.1%. In this issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Zarroug and others describe results of a 3-year post-MDA treatment survey that confirm elimination of O. volvulus transmission by these criteria in Abu Hamed, a geographically isolated endemic focus in northern Sudan inhabited by approximately 120,000 people. Of the 5,266 children tested for Ov16 antibody, one 9-year-old child was positive. This child had never traveled outside her home village and had a negative skin snip for Ov150 DNA, indicating that she probably did not have a patent infection with skin microfilariae, but had previously been exposed to O. volvulus infective larvae. Lymphatic filariasis or other parasitic worm infections that may elicit antibodies that cross-react with Ov16 are not endemic in the study area.