GC-MS Analysis on Metabolites of Oncomelania hupensis Infested by Schistosoma japonicum

  Objective  Metabolites of Oncomelanias hupensis infested by parasite Schistosoma japonicum were analyzed to search for a biological control for the disease on the snails.

  Method  Under microscopic examination, snails were determined whether or not being infested by the parasite. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to analyze the metabolites of the positive and negative snails for comparison. An orthogonal-partial least squares method was applied to differentiate the healthy and diseased subjects.

  Result  Eighteen substances were found to present in the two categories of specimens with significant differences. Among them, benzyl alcohol, sucrose, dioctyl phthalate, and 3-hydroxybutyric acid showed 2.3 to 765 times higher in quantity on the healthy than the infested snails. Those identified metabolites were known to be associated with energy metabolism, protein synthesis and decomposition, signal transduction, and/or gene expression.

  Conclusion  The chemical disparities on the metabolites between the healthy and diseased O. hupensis suggested that the S. japonicum parasitism seriously affected the nutritional metabolism, growth development, and reproductive capacity of the snails. The finding would aid further study on the interaction mechanism between the parasite and its host for the development of an effective biological control of the disease.