Food-borne parasitic diseases caused by ingesting food and water containing infective parasites are still common parasitic diseases that are easily misdiagnosed and mistreated in clinical practice. With the participation of multi-disciplinary experts, and in the light of the latest research results at home and abroad, based on factors other than the quality of evidence (economics, patient preferences and values, trade-offs, accessibility, fairness, acceptability, etc.), the level of recommendation and the quality of evidence in evidence-based medicine were assessed using the World Health Organization-recommended evidence quality classification and strength of recommendation system, and a consensus of 24 items was reached to guide and improve the comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of food-borne parasitic diseases for clinical medical staff.

Trichinella spiralis infection can cause zoonotic trichinellosis that seriously endangers human health. During the entire T. spiralis life cycle stages, the parasite can manipulate the host's immune responses. The immune evasion mechanism, as a common natural selection mechanism, is an adaptation of pathogens to the immune system under natural selection. It enables the pathogens to relieve or alleviate the host's immune responses, avoid attacking from the immune system, and ensure that they can survive and reproduce. This paper reviewed the research advance of T. spiralis immune evasion mechanism in disturbing complement response, innate immune response, humoral immune response, and T cell immune response. Further research of the immune evasion mechanism of T. spiralis is of great significance for the prevention and control of trichinosis, the treatment of human autoimmune diseases, and allergic diseases.

Objective This study investigates the effect of thioredoxin peroxidase (TPx) in the excretory-secretory antigen (ESA) of Cysticercus cellulosae on activation of dendritic cell (DC) in piglets. Methods Healthy piglet medulla-derived DC were cultured in vitroo, in which lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was added at a final concentration of 100 ng/ml on 7 d for stimulation for 2 days, and then continuously cultured for 2 more days to collect immature DC (imDC) and mature DC (mDC) separately. The morphological changes of DCs were observed by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy on 1 to 9 d of culture. The expression of surface markers CD1 and major histocompatibility complex (MHC-Ⅱ) was detected by flow cytometry. The 7 d imDC was used in the assay with the assigned groups of negative control, TPx, ESA and LPS positive control, to which RPMI 1640 medium, TPx (50 μg/ml), ESA (50 μg/ml) and LPS (100 ng/ml) was added, respectively, to stimulate for 48 h for examining the expression of DC surface markers MHC-Ⅱ, CD80 and CD86 using flow cytometry and for detecting secretion levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL-6), IL-10, IL-12 in DC culture supernatant by ELISA. One-way ANOVA was used for comparison between multiple groups, and LSD-t test was used for two-way comparison between groups. Results Under ligth microscope, imDC were ovoid in shape with single form at the first day of culture; with the extension of culture time, DC increased in size, appeared pseudopods and spines and other features, and changed from ovoid to irregular shape. Scanning electron microscopy showed that compared with imDC, mDC had irregular morphology, roughly long shuttle shape, and numerous protrusions of different lengths radiating from the cytosol, which were distributed in a dendritic pattern, a typical dendritic structure. Flow cytometry showed that the expression of CD1 and MHC-Ⅱ in imDC was (0.113 ± 0.005)% and (0.430 ± 0.016)%, respectively, which was lower than that of mDC (21.400 ± 0.327)% and (21.333 ± 0.450)% (t = 130.341, 92.906, both P < 0.05). The expression levels of MHC-Ⅱ, CD80, and CD86 in the TPx group were (15.300 ± 0.245)%, (22.900 ± 0.374)% and (13.033 ± 0.249)%, respectively, which were lower than those in the LPS positive control group (19.000 ± 0.374)%, (31.600 ± 0.082)%, and (21.300 ± 0.245)% (t = 11.53, 46.32, 43.84, all P < 0.05) and the ESA group (18.365 ± 0.618)%, (40.400 ± 0.356)% and (30.300 ± 0.283)%] (t = 9.55, 93.17, 91.57, all P < 0.05). The MHC-Ⅱ expression level in the TPx group was higher than that of the negative control group (12.133 ± 0.492)% (t = 9.87, P < 0.05). ELISA results showed that IL-6 level in DC of the TPx group was 15.682 ± 0.660, which was ower than that of 21.041 ± 0.901 in the control group (t = 6.51, P < 0.05); TNF-α (35.711 ± 4.196), IL-6, IL-10 (22.216 ± 1.357) and IL-12 (16.799 ± 0.523) were all lower than those of the LPS positive control group 169.037 ± 7.823, 42.118 ± 1.932, 34.730 ± 1.772, 52.504 ± 2.431 (t = 36.79, 32.09, 13.09, 35.05, all P < 0.05); IL-12 level were lower than that of the ESA group at 23.854 ± 1.020 (t = 6.93, P < 0.05). Conclusion TPx mediates immune tolerance by inducing high expression of DC surface molecules MHC-Ⅱ, low expression of CD80 and CD86, and reducing the secretion levels of IL-6.

Antimalarial drug resistance presents the biggest challenge for treatment against malaria. Plasmodium parasites have developed different degrees of resistance to common traditional antimalarial drugs including artemisinin. Therefore, the improvement of traditional drugs and the research and development of new drugs are urgently needed. This paper discusses the malaria control strategies based on a systematic review of the resistance mechanisms against traditional antimalarial drugs, the improvement strategies and optimisation achievements based on traditional drugs, and the research advances of new antimalarial drugs.

Trichinellosis is a serious zoonotic parasitosis. During the teaching and studies, some Trichinella and trichinellosis terminology (including Latin names and Chinese names) can be confusing. Complete interpretations of these terms have not been found in the relevant textbooks and monographs. In this article, some Trichinella and trichinellosis terminologies were interpreted to provide references for teaching and studies of Trichinella and trichinellosisin China.

In order to further understand the liver fibrosis and immune regulatory changes in mice infected with Clonorchis sinensis, BALB/c mice were randomly divided into 2 groups with 30 mice in each group. The infected group were administered 200 μl normal saline with 150 C. sinensis metacercariae through oral gavage and the control group received 200 μl normal saline. Six mice were randomly selected for dissection at 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 weeks. The paraffin sections of the liver tissue were stained with hematoxylin-eosin (HE) and Masson to observe the progression of fibrosis. The relative transcription level and actin alpha 2 (ACTA2) expression in the liver were detected by qRT-PCR and western blotting separately. The spleen tissue were weighed for calculating the spleen index (spleen weight per 10 g weight, mg/10 g). The flow cytometry was performed to detect the dynamical changes of CD4⁺ T cells, helper T1 (Th1) cells, Th2 cells, Th17 cells and regulatory T (Treg) cells in spleen. The secretion levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, and IL-17A were quantified by cytometric bead array. The data was analyzed by GraphPad Prism 9.0. Two-way ANOVA was used for groups comparison and t test was used for pairwise comparison. The results showed that the mice weight decreased and spleen index increased after infected with C. sinensis and the inflammatory lesions were visible in liver tissue. HE staining showed that C. sinensis larvae and inflammatory cells could be found around the hepatobiliary duct at week 1 after infection. Masson staining revealed that the relative area of collagen fiber deposition was higher than the control group after infection (F = 20.190, P < 0.05). The qRT-PCR results showed that the hepatic ACTA2 relative transcription level of the infected group were higher than the control group at week 2, 4 and 16 after infection (t = 2.042, 2.475, 1.634; all P < 0.01) but lower than the control group at week 8 (t = 2.758, P < 0.05). Western blotting results showed that the hepatic ACTA2 protein relative expression level of the infected group were higher than the control group (F = 3.225, P < 0.01). The flow cytometry results showed that the percentage of splenic CD4⁺ T cells decreased to (13.4 ± 1.8)% at week 2 after infection and increased to (22.4 ± 1.5)% at week 16. The percentage of Th1 cells increased to (16.9 ± 5.3)% at week 2 and decreased to (3.9 ± 2.6)% at week 16. The percentage of Th2 cells decreased to (2.3 ± 0.6)% at week 4 and increased gradually after week 4. The percentage of Th17 cells increased to (5.3 ± 3.4)% at week 8 and decreased to (2.4 ± 1.4)% at week 16. The percentage of Treg cells decreased to (7.3 ± 1.5)% at week 4 and increased to (13.9 ± 1.2)% at week 16. The serum TNF content of infected group mice increased to (35.16 ± 11.28) pg/ml at week 1 after infection and decreased to (8.98 ± 1.66) pg/ml at week 8. The serum IL-6 content was higher than the control group after infection (t = 2.095, P < 0.05). The serum IL-2 content decreased to (0.09 ± 0.18) pg/ml at week 8 and increased to (3.81 ± 2.79) pg/ml at week 16 after infection. The content of serum IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-10 and IL-17A increased gradually after infection (F = 8.726, 8.068, 6.795, 14.840; all P < 0.05). As a conclusion, the dynamic changes of CD4⁺ T cells and serum cytokines were closely related to the hepatic fibrosis induced by C. sinensis.

Objective To screen the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) by comparing the transcriptome of the brain tissues between the mice chronically infected with Toxoplasma gondii and normal mice, to analyze the relative transcription level of DEGs in the depression-related kynurenine (KYN) pathway and to provide a theoretical basis for exploring the mechanism of depression-like symptoms caused by Toxoplasma gondii chronic infecttion in mice. Methods SV129 male mice (n = 18) were randomly and equally divided into the infection group and the control group. Mice in the infection group were intraperitoneally injected with 120 tachyzoites of T. gondii ME49 strain (200 μl), and mice in the control group were injected with the same volume of PBS. After 3 months post-infection, mice brain tissues of the two groups were collected for extraction of total RNA to undertake transcriptome sequencing for screening DEG. With the DEGs obtained, cluster analysis, gene ontology (GO) functional annotation analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) functional annotation and enrichment analysis were performed. Eight DEGs [interferon-γ (IFN-γ), indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1), IDO2, kynurenine-3-monooxygenase (KYNU), kynurenine-3-monooxygenase (KMO), 3-hydroxyanthranilate 3,4-dioxygenase (3-HAO), vimentin (Vim) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)] related to KYN pathway associated with depression were selected to examine each gene’s relative transcription level by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), using glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene as an internal reference. Results Transcriptome sequencing found 2 295 DEGs in the brain of the mice from the infection and control groups, of which 2 016 were up-regulated and 279 were down-regulated. GO analysis showed that localisation was the most significantly enriched biological process, with a total of 257 DEGs. The most significantly enriched in cellular components was the protein-containing complex, with a total of 425 DEGs. The most significantly enriched molecular function was molecular transducer activity, with 177 DEGs. The largest number of DEGs enriched in biological process, cell component and molecular function were cell process, cell part and binding, with 1 039, 1 240 and 1 088 DEGs, respectively. KEGG analysis showed that the top three up-regulated metabolic pathways were the immune system, signaling transduction, and viral infectious disease, and the top three down-regulated pathways were signal transduction, signaling molecules and interaction and immune system. Functional enrichment analysis showed that 77 pathways were significantly enriched. The signaling pathways related to depression include tumor necrosis factor signaling pathway, neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction, NF-kappa B signaling pathway, JAK-STAT signaling pathway, necroptosis, apoptosis, chemokine signaling pathway, KYN pathway. The qRT-PCR results showed that the relative transcription levels of IFN-γ, IDO1, IDO2, KYNU, KMO, 3-HAO and Vim genes in the infection group were 3 023.08%, 355.52%, 190.17%, 496.55%, 339.92%, 212.74% and 507.34%, if the relative transcript level of control mice was taken as 100%. Compared with the control group, the transcription was significantly up-regulated (t = 3.782, 3.749, 3.226, 2.908, 2.533, 5.656, 2.948; all P < 0.05 or 0.01). The relative transcription level of BDNF was 63.32%, which was significantly down-regulated (t = 2.398, P < 0.05). The fold change of IFN-γ, IDO1, IDO2, KYNU, KMO, 3-HAO, BDNF, Vim obtained by qRT-PCR was 4.96, 1.74, 0.89, 2.10, 1.60, 1.06, -0.94, 2.18, respectively. The fold change obtained by transcriptome sequencing was 7.30, 0.55, 0.80, 3.83, 2.75, 3.53, -0.86 and 1.93, respectively. The transcriptional trend obtained by qRT-PCR was consistent with that obtained by transcriptome sequencing. Conclusion DEGs from brain tissues of mice chronically infected with T. gondii were screened. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the immune response of central nervous system of the mice with chronic infection of T. gondii was continuously activated. Seven DEGs in KYN pathway related to depression showed up-regulated transcription level.

Since the initiation of the central government fiscal transfer payment program for echinococcosis control in 2005, great strides have been achieved in echinococcosis control in China, progressing from currently basically controlling the transmission of echinococcosis to infection control and elimination. This article analyzes the recent epidemiology of echinococcosis and challenges in the national echinococcosis control program, and proposes future disease control priorities, so as to provide insights into optimization of the echinococcosis control strategy and achieving the goal of infection control and elimination of echinococcosis in China.