The potential risk of Schistosoma mansoni transmission by the invasive freshwater snail Biomphalaria straminea in South China

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2020 Jun 8;14(6):e0008310. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008310. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Abstract

Schistosomes infect more than 200 million people worldwide, and globally, over 700 million people are at risk of infection. The snail Biomphalaria straminea, as one of the intermediate hosts of Schistosoma mansoni, consecutively invaded Hong Kong in 1973, raising great concern in China. In this study, a malacological survey was conducted over a period of four years, and investigations were performed on the mechanism of susceptibility of B. straminea to S. mansoni. B. straminea was investigated in China from 2014 to 2018. Out of 185 investigated sites, 61 were positive for stages of black B. straminea (BBS), which shows pigmented spots. Twenty of the 61 sites were positive for red B. straminea (RBS), which is partially albino and red colored. Phylogenetic analyses based on cox1 and 18S rRNA sequences demonstrated that both phenotypes were clustered with Brazilian strains. No S. mansoni infections were detected in field-collected snail. However, in laboratory experiments, 4.17% of RBS were susceptible to a Puerto Rican strain of S. mansoni, while BBS was not susceptible. The highest susceptibility rate (70.83%) was observed in the F2 generation of RBS in lab. The density of RBS has increased from south to north and from west to east in Guangdong since 2014. Five tyrosinase tyrosine metabolism genes were upregulated in BBS. Transcriptome comparisons of RBS and BBS showed that ficolin, C1q, MASP-like, and membrane attack complex (MAC)/perforin models of the complement system were significantly upregulated in BBS. Our study demonstrated that B. straminea is widely distributed in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province, which is expanding northwards very rapidly as a consequence of its adaptation to local environments. Our results suggest that B. straminea from South China is susceptible to S. mansoni, implying the high potential for S. mansoni transmission and increased S. mansoni infection risk in China.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biomphalaria / parasitology*
  • China / epidemiology
  • Disease Vectors
  • Fresh Water / parasitology*
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred BALB C
  • Phylogeny
  • Schistosoma mansoni / isolation & purification*
  • Schistosomiasis mansoni / epidemiology
  • Schistosomiasis mansoni / transmission*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (SQ2019YFC120003 and 2016YFC1200500), Pearl River Nova Program of Guangzhou (No. 201710010030), The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University(17ykpy09), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province(2019A1515012068), The 111 Project (No. B12003) and The National Science and Technology Major Project (No. 2018ZX10101002). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.