Background: Micronemal proteins of the thrombospondin-related anonymous protein (TRAP) family are believed to play essential roles during gliding motility and host cell invasion by apicomplexan parasites, and currently represent major vaccine candidates against Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agent of malaria. However, recent evidence suggests that they play multiple and different roles th...

The aim of this study was to evaluate apoptosis and parasite load in the liver and spleen of dogs with visceral leishmaniosis (VL), using immunohistochemistry. Liver and spleen samples from 71 dogs with VL were used. The parasite load in the spleen and liver showed significant difference between organs in infected group (P=0.0219). The density of the parasite load in the spleen (median=2.4) was...

Chagas disease, caused by infection with the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, is a major public health problem in Central and South America. The pathogenesis of Chagas disease is complex and the natural course of infection is not completely understood. The recent development of bioluminescence imaging technology has facilitated studies of a number of infectious and non-infectious diseases....

The factors that determine parasite assemblages among the clariid fishes of Lake Victoria, Tanzania were studied between August 2003 and February 2005. Six hundred and fifty-six fish belonging to seven species were necropsied and examined for parasites, from which 31 species of metazoan parasites were recorded. The community was dominated by the nematodes both in species and numbers. Most speci...

Factors that influence proximity and the number and duration of contacts among individuals can influence parasite transmission among hosts, and thus parasite prevalence and species richness are expected to increase with increasing host density. To examine this prediction we took advantage of a unique situation. Following the clearing of a forest fragment that supported red colobus (Piliocolobus...

Both Plasmodium falciparum and Anopheles gambiae show great diversity in Africa, in their own genetic makeup and population dynamics. The genetics of the individual mosquito and parasite are known to play a role in determining the outcome of infection in the vector, but whether differences in infection phenotype vary between populations remains to be investigated. Here we established two A. gam...

When cultures of normal mouse peritoneal macrophages were infected with the intracellular protozoan parasite Leishmania enrietti, the micro-organism was found to survive intracellularly for several days, apparently without multiplication. However, exposure of infected macrophages to certain stimuli led to rapid parasite killing and digestion, providing a sensitive assay with which the mechanism...

RATIONALE Epidemiologic studies suggest that intestinal parasite infections may protect against asthma. OBJECTIVES A systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiologic studies to determine whether total or species-specific current parasite infection is associated with a reduced risk of asthma or wheeze. METHODS We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL (up to January 2006); reviews; and ref...

During experimental infection with Trypanosoma cruzi, mice develop a strong CD8(+) T cell response focused mainly on a few immunodominant peptides encoded in trans-sialidase family genes. Despite the potency of this response, the initial emergence and peak of parasite-specific CD8(+) T cells has been noted to be relatively slow. In this study, we further document this delayed onset of T cell re...

Interferon regulatory factor-8 (IRF-8) is critical for Th1 cell differentiation and negatively regulates myeloid cell development including myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC). MDSC expand during infection with various pathogens including the gastrointestinal (GI) nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus bakeri (Hpb). We investigated if IRF-8 contributes to Th2 immunity to Hpb infection. Irf8 exp...