Journal of Bacteriology & Parasitology

Sabine Specht

Sabine Specht
Department of Immunology and Parasitology, Institute for Microbiology
University Hospital Bonn, Germany

Biography

Dr. Sabine Specht is a senior researcher at the Institute for Microbiology Immunology and Parasitology University Hospital Bonn Germany. She has received her PhD in Biology at the University of Hamburg Germany. She is involved in the development of Bachelor and Masters Program in Parasitology as well as teaching of pharmaceutical medical and biology students. She has one the Bonfor Young Investigator Award 2009 to establish a new lab Part of a team that has champioend antiWolbachia therapy as antifilarial treatment.

Research Interest

The filaria Wuchereria bancrofti is the cause of elephantiasis. Infected people suffer from swelling of extremities and scroti due to disrupted flow of the lymphatic fluid. Despite ongoing elimination programmes, eradication has not been achieved. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new therapeutic strategies. Recent findings have suggested that depletion of endosymbiotic bacteria (Wolbachia) leads to death of adult worms. Studies using doxycycline have shown that a treatment regimen of 6 weeks is sufficient for Wolbachia depletion and adult worm death. Imbedded in a research consortium funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, the two major objectives are to define shorter treatment regimens to be able to use it for mass drug administration as well as finding other drugs that can be administered to pregnant women or children, which is not the case for doxycycline. Our group uses a murine model for filariasis (Litomosoides sigmodontis) to test the efficacy of drugs and drug combinations.On the other hand among nematodes, filarial parasites have the highest average lifespan in their host. Therefore, mechanisms have evolved that divert or down-regulate the host´s immune system in order to alow entry and spread of helminths in their victims, immunomodulation and suppression by filarial nematodes has been shown to spread to unrelated third party antigens. In many countries other diseases such as malaria are often coendemic. To dissect the relationship between two parasites residing in a host, we established a coninfection model with Litomosoides sigmodontis and Plasmodium bergheid.