Trichinella's interactions with the host: evaluation of extracellular vesicules and soluble products – TrichinEV

Trichinella spp. are zoonotic parasites considered to be re-emerging and the causative agent of trichinellosis, a disease contracted by eating raw or undercooked infected meat.
The newborn larvae of the parasite invade the skeletal muscle cell and divert its transcriptional mechanisms to transform it into a nurse cell. This new structure will serve the larvae’s purpose, i.e. provide shelter and nutrients to grow into an infective muscle larvae. Some Trichinella species also induce the formation of a collagen capsule around the nurse cell, like Trichinella spiralis and some remain unencapsulated (e.g. Trichinella pseudospiralis). This particular host-parasite interaction is well described : it shares features with muscle repair which is a complex interplay between muscle cells and immune cells. Nevertheless, the exact molecular mechanisms remain to be investigated.
The goal of the TrichinEVs is to focus on a potential communication vector for the muscle infection process : extracellular vesicles (EVs).
Our main questions will concern the content (proteins and microRNAs) of parasite and muscle cells EVs at different stages of the infection and with two Trichinella species (T. spiralis versus T. pseudospiralis) (WP1), the effect of the parasite EVs on muscle and immune cells activation (WP2) and the effect of a previously described parasite protein, NBL1, on muscle cells EV production (WP3).