Toxoplasma gondii: Perfecting an Intracellular Life Style

Paclitaxel arrests growth of intracellular Toxoplasma gondii.

Addition of paclitaxel (Taxol) at a concentration of 1 microM to Toxoplasma gondii-infected human foreskin fibroblasts arrested parasite multiplication. Division of the T. gondii tachyzoite nucleus was inhibited, leading to syncytium-like parasite structures within the fibroblasts by 24 h after infection and treatment of the cultures. By 4 days after infection and treatment of the cultures with...

Toxoplasma gondii: inhibition of the intracellular growth by human lactoferrin.

In the present paper we focused on the potential role of human lactoferrin for the intracellular replication rate of T. gondii BK tachyzoites following our earlier observation that Toxoplasma gondii was able to bind human lactoferrin but not serum transferrin. The study was performed in vitro on human CaCo-2 epithelial cells and mouse L929 fibroblasts. We found that the multiplication of the pa...

Toxoplasma gondii

A total of 349 human serum samples were examined for anti-Toxoplasma antibodies by the Murex Single Use Diagnostic System (SUDS) qualitative screening test, indirect hemagglutination assay (IHA), and indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA). Concordant results with SUDS and IHA were obtained for 91.9% of serum samples; 8.9% were SUDS+ and IHA-; none were SUDSand IHA+. Comparison of the SUDS assa...

Toxoplasma gondii

The performance of a direct agglutination test for the detection of toxoplasma specific IgG immunoglobulin was compared with that ofthe latex agglutination test. The direct agglutination test was less sensitive but more specific than the latex agglutination test. Quantitative results were not directly comparable, reflecting the different antibody profiles detected in each assay. The direct aggl...

Toxoplasma gondii Pneumonia in an Immunocompetent Individual