Can many biomarkers make light work of liver fluke parasite diagnostics?

The helminth parasite Fasciola hepatica (liver fluke) is a pervasive economic threat on UK sheep and cattle farms. In the absence of vaccines, infections are controlled by anthelmintic chemotherapy, with infection risk reduced through pasture management. These control approaches are limited by anthelmintic resistance in worm populations, and consumer demand for organic animal products. There is therefore a need to reduce anthelmintic use, avoiding blanket treatments in favour of selectively targeted treatment regimes. Veterinarians often employ diagnostic tests, including faecal egg counting (FEC) or ELISA methods, to inform treatment decisions. However, no existing diagnostic tool can detect tissue penetrating, early juvenile fluke (less than 3 weeks post-infection). Existing tools therefore cannot support targeted treatment of the most damaging stage of the fluke life cycle. A new approach to diagnostic biomarker discovery is required to support targeted treatment strategies that can detect and respond to these pathogenic juvenile parasites. Our hypothesis is that a polyomic network approach to serum biomarker discovery will yield sensitive and specific biomarker patterns, capable of identifying tissue-penetrating juvenile liver fluke in sheep.

Objective 1: Sequence serum RNA transcriptomes, proteomes, and peptidomes from sheep fluke infections.

Objective 2: Perform network analysis of omics datasets to identify diagnostic biomarker patterns.

Project outcome: A set of prioritised RNA and/or protein/peptide biomarker clusters capable of identifying liver fluke infection within the first four weeks post-infection. These data will form the basis for future development of a rapid diagnostic test for liver fluke.