Skip Navigation

ZagOn: COVID-19 Resources

Dashboard and testing info, ZagCheck self-screening app, FAQs, visitor guidelines and more. Visit the ZagOn site

  • University Navigation University Navigation
  • Search Button
Search Button
Close Menu

Gonzaga Home

  • About
  • Academics
  • Admission
  • Student Life
  • Athletics
  • myGU

College & Schools

  • Online Graduate Programs
  • College of Arts & Sciences
  • School of Business Administration
  • School of Education
  • School of Engineering & Applied Science
  • School of Law
  • School of Leadership Studies
  • School of Nursing & Human Physiology

Info For

  • Future Students
  • Current Students
  • Parents & Families
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Staff
  • Our Community
  • Basketball Fans
Visit
Apply
Give
Close Menu
Gonzaga University
Gonzaga University
  • Search Button
  • Toggle Menu
News, Events & Stories Menu
  • News
  • Events
  • Stories
  • Publications
  • Galleries
News

News

Close Menu
Events

Events

Close Menu
Stories

Stories

Close Menu
Publications

Publications

Close Menu
Galleries

Galleries

Close Menu
  • Home
  • News, Events & Stories
  • Stories
  • Research Explores How Parasites Switch to Survive without Oxygen

Professor Shepherd's Research Explores How Parasites Switch to Survive without Oxygen

Professor Jennifer Shepherd, Ph.D.

October 15, 2020
|
Gonzaga News Service

Study Raises Prospects for New Treatments

SPOKANE, Wash. — Scientists estimate that 1 billion people worldwide are infected with parasitic helminths, round worms that live in soil and colonize human guts through dirty water. Gonzaga University Professor Jennifer Shepherd, Ph.D., has co-led a study showing that the helminths are able to survive in the low-oxygen environment of the human gut due to a unique enzyme variant.

Shepherd, professor and chair of Gonzaga’s chemistry and biochemistry department, notes the study raises prospects for new treatments to slow increasing resistance of parasites to available medications. Infections from these worms are common in less developed countries and have significant chronic negative consequences for child development.

“Survival by helminths in low-oxygen environments requires an electron transporter molecule named rhodoquinone, and its biosynthesis has been the focus of my research for over a decade,” Professor Shepherd said. “The discovery of a gene variant in parasites, which allows them to synthesize rhodoquinone, is significant since mammalian hosts do not contain this variant and thus it is a new selective target for drug discovery.”

Seven of the 18 neglected diseases categorized by the World Health Organization are caused by helminths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2019).
Scientists know that the parasites use an aerobic, or oxygen-dependent, metabolism to create energy. Once consumed, the parasitic helminths begin using a type of anaerobic, or oxygen-independent, metabolism. The researchers’ work is advancing their understanding of the mechanisms involved in how the parasites are able to make the switch.

Understanding how that switch works might allow scientists to interfere with that switch, and possibly kill the parasite in humans.

The study was co-led by Gustavo Salinas, a professor at Universidad de la República in Uruguay and Andrew Fraser, professor of molecular genetics at the University of Toronto’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research. Funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and Agencia Nacional para la Innovación y la Investigación ANII in Uruguay have supported the study.

The complete findings are published in e-Life, an online journal for life-sciences.

Share Story
Related Stories
  • Professor Shepherd's Research Targets Parasitic Infections
  • Zag Grad Aims to Help in COVID-19 Battle
  • Fall 2020 COVID-19 Lessons & Opportunities
  • A Science Whiz, Alla Kozubenko Bound for UW Medical School at Age 19

Categories

  • Academics
  • College of Arts & Sciences
  • Biochemistry
  • Chemistry
  • News Center

Subscribe

Subscribe to Messages from Gonzaga University


First Name
Last Name
Email Address *

Get the latest news sent to you as soon as it is published. While the frequency of these emails varies, you’ll typically receive between two and five emails per week, depending on the time of year.

A monthly newsletter sent from August through June that highlights some of our best news, stories and events.


Back to Top
Visit
Apply
Give
Quick Links
  • Maps & Directions
  • Employment at GU
  • Emergency Information
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility
  • Title IX
  • Consumer Information
  • ZagMail
  • Contact Us
  • Harassment & Discrimination Policy
  • Virtual Tour
  • myGU Intranet
Gonzaga University
502 East Boone Avenue
Spokane, WA 99258-0102
(800) 986.9585
A Jesuit, Catholic, Humanistic University
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube