Best oral presentation as a young scientist

Anisakiasis is an accidental zoonosis caused by consumption of raw fish parasitized with infective Anisakis spp third stage larvae (L3). In severe cases symptoms could lead to ulcers, granuloma and chronic inflammation of the gastro-intestinal tract, features potentially involved in the onset of a carcinogenic microenvironment. Interestingly, case reports of gastric and intestinal tumors in co-occurrence with anisakiasis are increasing from endemic countries. Nevertheless investigations on Anisakis pathogenicity in humans are still scarce. The aim of this study is to investigate Anisakis tumorigenic potential using: i) human intestinal organoids (HIO), a cutting-edge model capable of exhibiting the architecture and functionality of the organ of origin and ii) a newly discovered Anisakis messenger of pathogenicity, the extracellular vesicles (EVs). A comparative transcriptomic analysis carried out on HIO treated with Anisakis derived EVs revealed several transcripts showing potential link to cancer processes when the top 100 most abundant transcripts and the differentially expressed genes in treated HIO were examined. In particular, the downregulation of EPHB2 and LEFTY1 and the upregulation of NUPR1 genes, known to be associated with colorectal cancer, were suggested by bioinformatics and confirmed by qRT-PCR. Gene expression and protein estimation of inflammatory and cancer related factors were also performed, suggesting an immunosuppressive action with a decreasing trend in Il33 and Il1β gene expression and no alteration in Il8. This study represents the first attempt to deepen the Anisakis tumorigenic potential in human infections using HIO and EVs