Canonical WNT signalling governs Echinococcus metacestode development - PubMed
5 hours ago
- #metacestode development
- #WNT signalling
- #Echinococcus
- Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a lethal zoonosis caused by Echinococcus multilocularis metacestode larva.
- Canonical WNT (cWNT) signalling is critical for metacestode formation, with β-catenin (bcat-1) as its central effector.
- RNAi-mediated knockdown of bcat-1 impaired vesicle formation, caused stem-cell hyperproliferation, and altered muscle-fibre organization.
- bcat-1 knockdown led to anteriorization of gene expression and overproduction of head-inducing factors like sfrp.
- Metacestode-specific genes (e.g., muc-1, TNFR, antigen B, post2b) were downregulated, affecting vesicle formation.
- Anterior markers (frizzled-10, nou-darake, notum, follistatin) were overexpressed and localized to the future anterior pole in protoscolex formation.
- cWNT signalling directs Echinococcus body-axis formation and posteriorization, offering potential chemotherapy targets for AE.