Echinococcus multilocularis protoscoleces enhance glycolysis to promote M2 Macrophages through PI3K/Akt/mTOR Signaling Pathway

ABSTRACT

Alveolar Echinococcosis (AE) is a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by Echinococcus multilocularis, but its pathogenesis remains unclear. The primary objective of this study is to explore whether Echinococcus multilocularis protoscoleces (PSCs) regulate macrophage polarization and glucose metabolism by PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. We found that large numbers of CD68⁺ macrophages gathered in close liver issue from the lesion in AE patients. PSCs preferentially differentiated into M2 macrophages and the expressions of HK1, PFKL, PKM2, PI3K, Akt, p-Akt, mTOR and p-mTOR increased. The above results show that Echinococcus multilocularis protoscoleces enhance glycolysis to promote M2 macrophages through PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.

KEYWORDS:

• Echinococcus multilocularis
• glycolysis
• macrophage polarization
• protoscoleces
• PI3K/Akt/mTOR

Acknowledgments

We thank the Qinghai province Research Key Laboratory for Echinococcosis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant (number 81960129); Qinghai Department of Science and Technology under Grant (number 2021-SF-135); and Young and middle-aged Scientific Research Fund of Qinghai University Affiliated Hospital under Grant (number ASRF-2020-YB-07).