Serologic tests are widely accepted for diagnosing Toxoplasma gondii but purification and standardization of antigen needs to be improved. Recently, surface tachyzoite and bradyzoite antigens have become more attractive for this purpose. In this study, diagnostic usefulness of 3 recombinant antigens (SAG1, SAG2, and SAG3) were evaluated, and their efficacy was compared with the available commer...

DNA methylation is a key epigenetic modification which confers phenotypic plasticity and adaptation. Cyst-forming strains of Toxoplasma gondii undergo tachyzoite to bradyzoite conversion after initial acute infection of a host, and the reverse conversion may occur in immune-suppressed hosts. The formation of m5C is catalyzed by DNA methyltransferase (DNMT). We identified two functional DNA meth...

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite of the phylum Apicomplexa, and toxoplasmosis is an important disease of both humans and economically important animals. With a limited array of drugs available there is a need to identify new therapeutic compounds. Aureobasidin A (AbA) is an antifungal that targets the essential inositol phosphorylceramide (IPC, sphingolipid) syn...

BACKGROUND The objective of the present study was to survey the presence of Sarcocystis in sheep's brain in North Khorasan Province. METHODS In general, 80 samples of sheep's brain were collected from slaughtered sheep in slaughterhouses of North Khorasan Province. Tissue digestion method was used for observing bradyzoites in tissues. Histopathological processing tracing Sarcocystis and ensui...

Address for Correspondence: Dr. Jyothirmay Biswas, Head of the Department of Ocular-Pathology and Uvea, Medical and Vision Research Foundations, Sankara Nethralaya, 18, College Road, Chennai-600 006, E-mail: [email protected] Toxoplasmosis is the most common cause of posterior uveitis in many parts of the world. Prevalence is more in tropical countries than cold areas. 1,2 It is caused by Toxopla...

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoon parasite of all the warm blooded animals including birds and humans. It completes a sexual part of its life cycle in the intestinal epithelial cell of the Felidae (definitive host) and an asexual part in warm blooded (intermediate host). Human is an accidental host who contracts infection through handling cat litter and gardening, ingesti...

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite infecting 25% of the world population and enormous number of animals. It can exist in two forms in intermediate hosts: the fast replicating tachyzoites responsible for acute infection and the slowly replicating bradyzoites responsible for life-long chronic infection. The interconversion between tachyzoites and bradyzoites plays critical ro...

The MYST family of lysine acetyltransferases (KATs) function in a wide variety of cellular operations, including gene regulation and the DNA damage response. Here we report the characterization of the second MYST family KAT in the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii (TgMYST-B). Toxoplasma causes birth defects and is an opportunistic pathogen in the immunocompromised, the latter due to its abil...