# Durable Schistosome induced metabolic alterations to the myeloid lineage

> **NIH NIH R01** · UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH · 2021 · $626,956

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Diabetic patients have a two-fold greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease than non-diabetic subjects,
and more than 65% of diabetic patients die from cardiovascular complications, thus, there is a critical need for
novel approaches to targeting insulin resistance, obesity, and atherosclerosis in this population. Recent
evidence has suggested that innate and/or adaptive inflammatory responses are associated with both insulin
resistance and obesity, while atherosclerosis is now widely accepted to be a lipid-dependent chronic
inflammatory disease. An increasing body of literature has established an inverse correlation between chronic
helminth infections and metabolic syndrome/diabetes. The central hypothesis of this project is that
schistosome antigenic exposure induces long-lived modifications in the monocyte/macrophage lineage that
lead to profound alterations in systemic phospholipid, cholesterol, and amino acid metabolism, resulting in a
protective state from the detrimental effects of High Fat Diet (HFD) (e.g., insulin insensitivity, and
atherosclerosis). The rationale for this research is that identifying genetic drivers that underlie this protective
phenotype is expected to enable the formulation and development of therapies to target these pathways as
treatments for diabetic patients at risk for CVD. This objective will be addressed by pursuing three specific
aims: 1) Define the role of S. mansoni infection in regulating the long-term metabolic and immunological
function of macrophages; 2) Determine how S. mansoni infection regulates hematopoietic differentiation of
macrophages at the transcriptional level; and 3) Determine the role of biological sex and sex hormones in
schistosome induced metabolic reprogramming. It is expected that the findings from these studies will provide
a definitive conceptual framework as to the mechanism through which S. mansoni infection modulates
metabolism and immunologic plasticity of the macrophage lineage.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10184936
- **Project number:** 1R01AI158710-01
- **Recipient organization:** UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
- **Principal Investigator:** Eyal Amiel
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $626,956
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-03-05 → 2025-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10184936

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10184936, Durable Schistosome induced metabolic alterations to the myeloid lineage (1R01AI158710-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10184936. Licensed CC0.

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