Onchocerca volvulus adult worms

Aug 28, 2014

Onchocerca volvulus adult worms                
 
 
Photo courtesy of WHO/TDR/OCP.
These worms are found in skin nodules in patients with river blindness or onchocerciasis. 
The majority of children with NDS are positive for the worms using various tests.
A worm protein OV16 has an uncanny amino acid similarity to a human brain protein PEBP1. 
This similarity might dupe the body's immune system into attacking and destroying PEBP1 in NDS. 
This project will try and get some answers to confirm or disprove this speculation.

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About This Project

A Diagnostic Test for a Children's Brain Disease

Med Biotech Laboratories

Nodding Disease Syndrome (NDS) is a brain disease that affects children in Uganda. We currently don’t know of the exact cause of NDS, nor have a reliable form of diagnosis. This project aims to answer both of these questions by first investigating a link between a suspected brain protein which might be related to NDS, and a protein related to a parasitic worm disease, and to measure levels of this protein in affected/unaffected children.