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DIFFERENTIATION OF SCHISTOSOMA HAEMATOBIUM FROM RELATED SCHISTOSOMES BY PCR AMPLIFYING AN INTER-REPEAT SEQUENCE

Schistosoma haematobium infects nearly 150 million people, primarily in Africa, and is transmitted by select species of local bulinid snails. These snails can host other related trematode species as well, so that effective detection and monitoring of snails infected with S. haematobium requires a successful differentiation between S. haematobium and any closely related schistosome species. To enable differential detection of S. haematobium DNA by simple polymerase chain reaction (PCR), we designed and tested primer pairs from numerous newly identified Schistosoma DNA repeat sequences. However, all pairs tested were found unsuitable for this purpose. Differentiation of S. haematobium from S. bovis, S. mattheei, S. curassoni, and S. intercalatum (but not from S. margrebowiei) was ultimately accomplished by PCR using one primer from a newly identified repeat, Sh110, and a second primer from a known schistosomal splice-leader sequence. For evaluation of residual S. haematobium transmission after control interventions, this differentiation tool will enable accurate monitoring of infected snails in areas where S. haematobium is sympatric with the most prevalent other schistosome species.

Received September 10, 2006. Accepted for publication October 27, 2006.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank Dr. David A. Johnston, from the Biomedical Parasitology Division, Department of Zoology, Natural History Museum, London, UK, for providing us with specimens of the schistosome species examined in the study.

Financial support: This research was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Fogarty International Center of the U.S. National Institute of Health under Grants AI45473 (NIAID) and TW/ES01543 (Fogarty International Center).

^* Address correspondence to Ibrahim Abbasi, Department of Parasitology, Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, P.O. Box 12272, Jerusalem 91120, Israel. E-mail: ibrahim{at}md.huji.ac.il

Authors’ addresses: Ibrahim Abbasi and Joseph Hamburger, Department of Parasitology, Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, PO Box 12272, Jerusalem 91120, Israel, Telephone: 972-2-6758087, Fax: 972-2-6757425, E-mail: ibrahim{at}md.huji.ac.il. Charles H. King, Center for Global Health and Diseases, Wolstein 4126, CWRU School of Medicine, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH, 44106-7286, Telephone: 216-368-4818, Fax: 216-368-4825, E-mail: chk{at}po.cwru.edu. Robert F. Sturrock, 92 Brennand Road, Dongara WA6525, Australia, E-mail: sturrock{at}iprimus.com.au. Curtis Kariuki and Eric Muchiri, Division of Vector Borne Diseases, Ministry of Health, PO 20750, Nairobi, Kenya, Telephone: 254-20-725833, Fax: 254-20-720030, E-mail: schisto{at}wananchi.com.

The structure and other characteristics of the various repeated sequences found in the course of our search are beyond the scope of the present report, which centers on differential identification of S. haematobium, and will be detailed in a future publication. Those 27 clones that provided primers for inter-repeat amplification with the Sm-Sl primer were deposited in the GenBank (accession nos. DQ831697–DQ831706).