Schistosomiasis in modern and ancient tissues

Abstract

Schistosoma worms are ancient, infecting man in both in the past and modern times. Today they infect more than 300 million people, mainly in the developing world where lifestyle is still similar to their ancestors. As part of an epidemiology study of Schistosomiasis, ancient tissues from the Manchester Museum and collections around the world are now being tested for the disease. Many problems have arisen whilst working with the ancient tissues, ranging from accessibility to its preparation for tests. However, many of the problems encountered have now been overcome enabling immunocytochemistry to be successfully applied to infected modern and ancient tissues, suggesting that schistosoma antigens can survive thousands of years. Immunocytochemistry has continued to be the predominant test used for this study, although DNA, ELISA and microsomal strips are also being explored