LOOK AFTER YOUR TUMMY! Welcome to the worm wagon!

The Manchester Immunology Group: What do we do? We study how our bodies fight infection Tummy bugs are the most common in the world affecting 4 billion people/year! We want to find out more about the bugs that infect your tummy

Your tummy Your tummy is made up of lots of parts. First there is a tube (the oesophagus) that your food travels in until it reaches the stomach. Then your food travels down a VERY, VERY long tube- the small intestine and onto the large intestine where all the important nutrients are taken out until all that is left is waste (poo). Most “tummy” bugs will infect the intestine (small and large intestine)

The Intestines Can you guess how long the average intestine is? (a) 20m (b) 9m (c) 2.5m The answer is (b) around 9m!!!! Look how it fits in your tummy. Look at the picture to find out where the stomach, small and large intestine are (NB some of the large intestine in this picture is tucked away behind the small intestine so you can’t see it!) stomach large intestine small intestine Click mouse/down arrow for answer

WORMS! One of the bugs that can infect your intestine is called a worm The biggest worm is called a tapeworm (picture below) and they can grow very big even 7m long! Worms are very common worldwide but rare in the UK Tape Worm head! Pictures taken from web.gccaz.edu/.../labreview/platyhelminthes/

SOME OTHER WORMS These are WHIPWORMS which we study in Manchester. The picture on the left shows a drawing of the whole worm (Image courtesy of Paul Evans). The picture on the right is a photograph take from a microscope of the same worms (labelled w) but with their heads burrowed into the gut (Image courtesy of Richard Grencis)

How do we get these Bugs and Worms? Pets, raw or poorly cooked food, badly washed vegetables or fruit and not washing your hands (especially after going to the toilet or handling animals) are the most common way we get all kinds of infections including worms! Click Mouse for explanation

What happens when we get a tummy bug What happens when we get a tummy bug? Shortly you will see a short cartoon. First meet the main characters!

Meet the cast….. Name: Bug Otherwise known as: bacteria, virus, parasite, worm Job: to get inside you and make more bugs! Why? It wants to stay alive so it needs to stay in you or infect someone else! BUG

Meet the cast….. Dendritic cell Name: Dendritic cell Otherwise known as: Immune cell, stellate cell (because it has long arms) Job: To patrol (move around) your body looking for threats! Why? It is the best cell at finding danger and can tell the rest of the immune cells how to deal with the threat! Dendritic cell

Meet the cast….. Name: Police cell Otherwise known as: T cell or B cell Job: To eliminate (kill) bugs Why? It is the best cell at killing bugs but is won’t do this until it has been told what the bug is. It never forgets a bug once it has met the bug though and doesn’t need telling twice!!!! This is called being “immune” and is the basis of VACCINATION! Police cell

The bug travels in from the mouth to the intestine (in this case the large intestine) Next slide

Once it gets there the bug reproduces to make lots of bugs Once it gets there the bug reproduces to make lots of bugs. Our immune system gets alerted Press down arrow for Next slide

Potential threat to our body BRITISH INTESTINAL POLICE STATION ALERT ALERT ALERT Potential threat to our body We must act at once! The DENDRITIC cells find the bugs. When they find bugs they go to lymph nodes (hint you have lymph nodes in your neck and sometimes they get big and sore when you are poorly).The dendritic cells alert your own little police cells of the threat. Press down arrow for Next slide Next slide

Once the police cells (which are really called T cells and B cells) know there is danger and what the threat is they can go deal with it and kill the bugs Press down arrow for Next slide Next slide

What Can We Do? You can watch how you prepare your food and always wash your hands before eating or after you go to the toilet We as scientists try to understand better how the immune system works and once we know this can try to make better drugs that treat disease or even vaccines to prevent disease! Click Mouse for explanation

Looking down the microscope Our Science Lab Growing cells Looking down the microscope at bugs Our research into the immune system and bugs has provided lots of new information about immunology and infection. For details of our research please go to our website: http://www.mig.ls.manchester.ac.uk/ Freezing samples Pipetting to look at DNA! Click Mouse for text