Secreted and surface proteome and transcriptome of Opisthorchis felineus

Opisthorchis felineus is one of the three most medically important species belonging to the family of fish-borne zoonotic trematodes known as Opisthorchiidae. O. felineus is endemic to the river plains of Western Siberia and Eastern Europe and it is estimated that more than 1.6 million people could be infected with this parasite. To aid in the development of better control and diagnosis strategies for opisthorchiasis, we set out to deduce the secreted proteome of O. felineus. Adult flukes were collected from experimentally infected hamsters and cultured in vitro in serum-free media. We extracted proteins from different compartments of the O. felineus secretome, including (i) soluble excretory/secretory (ES) products; (ii) secreted microvesicles (MVs); and (iii) tegument. The tegument was further separated into three fractions of varying solubility via sequential extraction.