Organism Project on Schistosoma Mansoni

The organism project intends to evaluate the incidence of resistance in Schistosoma mansoni with the focus being on how to address the issue using hygiene approaches as an easy to apply control strategy. S. mansoni is a nematode parasite strain that causes schistosomiasis as a tropical human disease. In fact, its classification is in the Animalia kingdom, Trematoda class, Strigeatida order, and Schistosomatidae family. The parasite is common in equatorial tropical regions to include African, South America, Middle East, and the Caribbean regions with fresh water and an abundance of snails. Thought to have originated in Africa, the parasite is believed to have spread to other regions of the world during the slave trade era (Moen and Tkacs, 2013). In this respect, S. mansoni is a nematode parasite that causes schistosomiasis in humans.
S. mansoni lifecycle begins in the mesenteric veins where the adults deposit the eggs. The eggs then transverse through mucosal linings and tissues before gaining entry to the bladder and gut before exiting the host body through urine or feces. Once they have been expelled from the body, the eggs gain access to a fresh water body before hatching to form miracidia that attach to a snail as an intermediate host. The parasite then transforms into sporocysts before exiting the snail’s body as cercariae. The cercariae then attach to the human skin using suckers, produce enzymes that allow it to penetrate the skin before burrowing into the transport systems that include the lymphatic system and peripheral blood vessels.

The transport systems move the cercariae to the heart and lungs where they undergo transformation into schistomule that feed on the host’s blood cells to cause schistosomiasis (Moen and Tkacs, 2013).
Resistance is a situation in which a parasite strain is subjected to a counter agent in environments that permit it to produce particles that act against the agent. For example, oxamniquine and praziquantel resistance have been noted in different S. mansoni strains as pointed out by Pinto-Almeida et al. (2015) and Couto et al. (2011). In this case, the parasite produces particles to act against the counter agent thereby allowing the parasite to survive while those without the particle do not survive. Applying evolutionary instruments, the parasite applies natural selection to make certain that the resistance is transmitted to parasites within the same vicinity or progeny who inherits the ability. Also, globalization, poor hygiene, non-completion of medication dosages, and medicine abuse and overuse allows for more incidence of resistance since more parasites are exposed to the counter agent (Jackson and Radunskaya, 2015, pp. 200-201). Therefore, resistance noted in parasites is a result of natural selection acting on parasite strains exposed to counter agents.
This analysis makes it evident that the drug resistance noted in S. mansoni could be the result of a range of factors to include poor hygiene, globalization, non-completion of medication dosages, and medicine overuse and abuse. In the present case, the organism project will ascertain the presence of resistance in S. mansoni and the position that good hygiene could play in preventing or slowing down the incidence of resistance. Besides that, the results of the study would be useful in making the hygiene signs that are found in public areas such as restrooms more effective since they are aimed at preventing the spread of diseases caused by parasites such as S. mansoni.

Works Cited
Couto, F., Coelho, P., Araújo, N., Kusel, J., Katz, N., Jannotti-Passos, L. and Mattos, C. 2011. Schistosoma mansoni: A method for inducing resistance to praziquantel using infected Biomphalaria glabrata snails. Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz, 106(2). [http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762011000200006].
Jackson, T. and Radunskaya, A. 2015. Applications of Dynamical Systems in Biology and Medicine. Springer: New York, NY.
Moen, L. and Tkacs, J. 2013. Schistosoma mansoni. 2013. [http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Schistosoma_mansoni/]
Pinto-Almeida, A., Mendes, T., Armada, A., Belo, S., Carrilho, E., Viveiros, M. and Afonso, A. 2015. The Role of Efflux Pumps in Schistosoma mansoni Praziquantel Resistant Phenotype. PONE Journal. [http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0140147].