Seafood CRC: discovery and manipulation of Neoparamoeba perurans aquaporins as a means to treat amoebic gill disease (AGD)

Funding Activity

Website
https://www.frdc.com.au/project/2010-731

Funding Status
Closed

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Funded Activity Summary

Cumulative data from other parasites suggests that blocking of Aquaporin channels (AQPs) may provide a suitable target for the use of pharmaceuticals to control these diseases. Neoparamoeba share many similarities with other pathogens. However, there is a need to correctly identify the Neoparamoeba AQPs at the molecular level, to undertake preliminary studies to show that these AQPs can be blocked preferentially (without affecting Atlantic salmon AQPs), and to show that block of the parasite AQPs results in inhibition or death of the Neoparamoeba. Central to this work and indeed to any further AGD research is a need to develop low cost, rapid and reliable assays of salmon gill cell – Neoparamoeba interactions. These in-vitro assays would lead to real dollar savings in the search for alternative AGD treatments by providing high throughput capability to assess multiple treatment options (pharmaceuticals, vaccines, chemicals). They provide a means of investigating amoebae – gill interactions as well as differential (pathogen versus host) effects of treatments. Dr Benita Vincent at CSIRO has begun pilot development of these assay systems with good early success, however, further resources are required to see this work to fruition.

Objectives:
1. To clone and sequence Neoparamoeba perurans aquaporins
2. To screen a library of known aquaporin blockers against both Neoparaomoeba perurans and Atlantic salmon aquaporins in an in-vitro Xenopus oocyte system
3. To refine and establish routine protocols for an Atlantic salmon gill cell line and in vitro assay for examining amoeba-gill and treatment interactions
4. To take the best identified aquaporin blockers (from objective 2) and test these in vitro to determine if they kill or inhibit Neoparamoeba perurans without affecting Atlantic salmon cells

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-05-2010

End Date: 30-11-2010

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $53,250.00

Funder: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

There are no FoR codes available for this funding activity

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

Animal Health | Biology | Disease | Pharmaceutics

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