Dundee team to research the parasite household cleaning products cannot kill

A leading authority on Cryptosporidium has warned of an urgent need for greater awareness and more fundamental research of the deadly parasite.

Dr Mattie Christine Pawlowic, a Principal Investigator and Sir Henry Dale Fellow at the University’s School of Life Sciences, says that more research into the disease as well as efforts to develop new medicines would safeguard both public health and the welfare of the UK farming industry.

As a recognised leader in unveiling the secrets of the organism, Dr Pawlowic and her team of researchers have received new support in the form of a Career Development Award from Wellcome to further their understanding of how it survives so effectively.

“Cryptosporidium is protected by a shell, but we know very little about how it is so protective,” she said. “It is almost like a coin purse in the way it opens and closes. It uses a microscopic structure that acts like a zipper. When the zipper opens, the parasites ‘hatch’ out of the shell. In our new research project, we are working to understand how the parasites open that coin purse at the right time and in the right conditions.

“If the parasites hatch from the shell too early then they will be killed in the environment, too late then it will not infect. This ability to control its survival is what makes it particularly potent.”

Cryptosporidium is a waterborne parasite, which makes transmission difficult to control. Typical water treatment methods, such as chlorination, do not kill Cryptosporidium and effective techniques, like UV treatment, filtration, or boil advisories are either expensive or too impractical to be used in large population centres.

After infecting a person, Cryptosporidium can cause chronic diarrhoea that can prove fatal. Children, older people and the immunocompromised are most likely to suffer from chronic, and unfortunately sometimes fatal disease. The WHO has identified diarrhoea as the third-leading cause of death in children under 60 months of age. The only available treatment  – Nitazoxanide – is not effective in young and malnourished children, and in immunocompromised adults.

Though most devastating in areas with poor sanitation, outbreaks can also occur in developed countries when there is an issue with water treatment, or in recreational waters.

Dr Pawlowic is one of the rising stars of UK science, having collected the Biochemical Society’s Early Career Research Award and Royal Society of Edinburgh Dame Anne McLaren Medal in Life Sciences. She has been studying Cryptosporidium since 2013. In her career to date, Dr Pawlowic’s research has developed tools that allow scientists to investigate the fundamental biology of Cryptosporidium, raising the possibility of one day developing new treatments to combat cryptosporidiosis.

“Cleaning products in supermarkets claim to kill 99.9% of germs,” she continues. “Cryptosporidium is the 0.1% they cannot touch.

“Bleach simply will not work, so boiling or UV light is the only way to treat it and those are expensive options. You also need to kill every single parasite because it is so highly infectious. Getting rid of it is a huge challenge which is why places like swimming pools have to close for so long when there are outbreaks.”

Cryptosporidium also plagues the farming sector and is prevalent in a variety of livestock. Outbreaks can have significant adverse effects on the livestock sector, with infection transmitted by contact with infected animals, their faeces, or contaminated water supplies.

In a significant breakthrough last year,  Dr Pawlowic and her team, in collaboration with the Drug Discovery Unit and researchers at the University of Vermont,  identified two drug molecules that demonstrated positive results in controlling cryptosporidiosis in calves, but with further research required, the sector remains hugely vulnerable.

Dr Pawlowic added, “In the UK we are reasonably sheltered from outbreaks, but as we have seen when they do happen, the ramifications for people are significant and it becomes headline news. Similarly, the health of cattle and the economic impact is vital to the UK. We cannot be complacent about a parasite that is so prevalent in this country, so further research is vital if we are to protect our public and our farmers.”

You can learn more about Dr Pawlowic’s research on the University website.