No More Elephant-People?

There are freaks paying big sums of money for silicon injections that allegedly help them develop huge genitalia. Some got it naturally, cost-free and really unwittingly. It's about elephant people, patients with elephantiasis, a parasite disease induced by worms called filariasis, that block the lymphatic vessels.

This determines the accumulation of liquid that causes changes into the surrounding tissues translated into grossly enlarged or swollen arms, legs (which get the look of elephant feet, hence the name of the disease), breasts and genitalia, not to mention the elephant-like look of the skin. There are three nematode worm species behind the disease: Wuchereria bancrofti (Africa and South America), Brugia malayi, and B. timori (in Asia), whose vectors are the mosquitoes.

When affecting genitalia, elephantiasis impedes having sex, but even when affecting other areas, it dooms the individuals out of the marriage-family cycle of the society.

130 million people worldwide in the tropical areas live with elephantiasis, 40 million with severe malformations. The worms' larvae (microfilariae) spread throughout the bloodstream, and live for many years, inducing the severe symptoms after years of infection. Elephantiasis is the second-leading factor of disability behind blindness worldwide and the infection is present in 80 tropical countries.

Now an American-British researcher at the Imperial College, London, and three American institutions, have decoded the DNA of Brugia malayi; their work that could help the development of improved drugs or vaccines. In the following years, closer investigations of the worm's genes and the proteins could lead to new goals for either immunization or cure.

"We hope that our data will enable both ourselves and other research teams around the world to move forward and study the mechanisms by which this parasite infects humans in greater detail, which should lead to better targeted drugs to treat infection, and hopefully - in the long run - a vaccine to prevent it.", said lead researcher Dr David Giuliano from Imperial College.

"Experience in countries such as China, Burkina Faso and Sri Lanka showed that it was possible to eradicate the disease completely within a matter of a few years. We already have drugs that work and that cost just a few cents per child per year, but they aren't being provided in many countries. We have the means at our disposal to eradicate these diseases - which affect more than a hundred million people worldwide - by the year 2020. I cannot see genome-based research coming up with new drugs or vaccines which could be more effective within this timescale.", said Professor David Molyneux, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, who did not discard the importance of this research either.