Characterization of membrane‐associated progesterone receptor component‐2 (Maprc2) from trichinella spiralis and its interaction with progesterone and mifepristone

Abstract

Trichinellosis is a foodborne zoonotic disease caused by Trichinella spp., including Trichi-nella spiralis. In the present study, T. spiralis membrane‐associated progesterone receptor compo-nent‐2 (Ts‐MAPRC2) gene was cloned and characterized using protein sequencing analysis. Fur-thermore, the expression, purification, immunoblot assay, binding ability with progesterone anti-body, and immunofluorescence assay were performed. A direct effect of progesterone (P4) and mif-epristone (RU486) on the Ts‐MAPRC2 gene was determined using in vitro cell culture that showed different expression levels at all developmental stages (muscle larvae (ML), female adult worm (F‐ AL), male adult worm (M‐AL), and newborn larvae (NBL)). Subsequently, the in vitro phenotypic effects of P4, RU486, and rTs‐MAPRC2‐Ab on F‐AL and ML stages were measured. Later, the in vivo phenotypic effect and relative mRNA expression of mifepristone on the F‐AL stage were studied. Our results revealed that the Ts‐MAPRC2 gene is critical to maintaining pregnancy in the female adult worm (F‐AL) of T. spiralis. The 300 ng/mL of P4 and 100 ng/mL of RU486 showed downregu-lation of the Ts‐MAPRC2 gene in F‐AL (p ≤ 0.05). This plays an important role in abortion and pos-sibly decreases the worm burden of T. spiralis in the host. Only 30 ng/mL P4 showed significant upregulation in F‐AL (p ≤ 0.05). The current study provides new insights regarding the antihormone (P4 and RU486) drug design and vaccine therapy of recombinant (rTs‐MAPRC2) protein as well as their combined effects to control T. spiralis infection.