Novel targets for new drug development are urgently required to combat malaria, a disease that puts half of the world's population at risk. One group of enzymes identified within the genome of the most lethal of the causative ...

Cercariae of the bird schistosome Trichobilharzia regenti and of the human schistosome Schistosoma mansoni employ proteases to invade the skin of their definitive hosts. To investigate whether a similar proteolytic mechanism ...

Over the last decade a significant number of studies have highlighted the central role of host antimicrobial (or defence) peptides in modulating the response of innate immune cells to pathogen-associated ligands. In humans, ...

In mammals, cysteine proteases are essential for the induction and development of both innate and adaptive immune responses. These proteases play a role in antigen-and pathogen-recognition and elimination, signal processing ...

Fasciola hepatica is a helminth pathogen that drives Th2/Treg immune responses in its mammalian host. The parasite releases a large number of molecules that are critical to inducing this type of immune response. Here we ...

Helminth parasites (nematodes, flatworms and cestodes) infect over 1 billion of the world¿s population causing high morbidity and mortality. The large tissue-dwelling worms express papain-like cysteine peptidases, termed ...

The liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica causes liver fluke disease, or fasciolosis, in ruminants such as cattle and sheep. An effective vaccine against the helminth parasite is essential to reduce our reliance on anthelmintics, ...

Soluble egg antigen (SEA) from the helminth Schistosoma mansoni promotes T helper type 2 (Th2) responses by modulating antigen-presenting cell function. The Jagged/Notch pathway has recently been implicated in driving Th2 ...