Proteolytic enzymes and their inhibitors in cestodes

Complex physiological relationships between a parasite and its host are evidenced by the following facts. Cestodes are able to produce their own proteolytic enzymes or to adsorb and utilize host proteinases, on the one hand, secreting inhibitors of these enzymes, on the other. Apparently, inhibitors of proteinases in larval cestodes primarily serve for suppression of host immune response, while in the adult worms living in the vertebrate intestine these inhibitors mostly protect them against the hydrolysis by intestinal proteinases. Besides, the presence of the parasite in the intestine often entails changes in the activity of host proteolytic enzymes