Recent advances in candidate-gene and whole-genome approaches to the discovery
of anthelmintic resistance markers and the description of drug/receptor
interactions
Anthelmintic resistance has a great impact on livestock production systems
worldwide, is an emerging concern in companion animal medicine, and represents
a threat to our ongoing ability to control human soil-transmitted helminths.
The Consortium for Anthelmintic Resistance and Susceptibility (CARS) provides
a forum for scientists to meet and discuss the latest developments in the
search for molecular markers of anthelmintic resistance. Such markers are
important for detecting drug resistant worm populations, and indicating the
likely impact of the resistance on drug efficacy. The molecular basis of
resistance is also important for understanding how anthelmintics work, and how
drug resistant populations arise. Changes to target receptors, drug efflux and
other biological processes can be involved. This paper reports on the CARS
group meeting held in August 2013 in Perth, Australia. The latest knowledge on
the development of molecular markers for resistance to each of the principal
classes of anthelmintics is reviewed. The molecular basis of resistance is
best understood for the benzimidazole group of compounds, and we examine
recent work to translate this knowledge into useful diagnostics for field use.
We examine recent candidate-gene and whole-genome approaches to understanding
anthelmintic resistance and identify markers. We also look at drug
transporters in terms of providing both useful markers for resistance, as well
as opportunities to overcome resistance through the targeting of the
transporters themselves with inhibitors. Finally, we describe the tools
available for the application of the newest high-throughput sequencing
technologies to the study of anthelmintic resistance