Current Understandings of Molecular Biology of Echinococcus multilocularis, a Pathogen for Alveolar Echinococcosis in Humans- a Narrative Review Article

BACKGROUND Echinococcus multilocularis is a tiny tapeworm, responsible for 0.3~0.5 million alveolar echinococcosis in humans. METHODS We searched relevant papers published between 1981 and 2013 based on the database sources such as PubMed and Google scholar, and collected and integrated the data for analysis. RESULTS The parasite is able to use host-originated molecules to modulate its development and has complex signalling pathways than expected previously. E. multilocularis utilizes many types of alternative splicing approaches to generate transcript isoforms. Recently, the genome of E. multilocularis has been deciphered. CONCLUSION These data will give us a profound understanding of biology of E. multilocularis, which will promote the use as a model to study helminths.