Porcine infections are currently not the state-of-the-art model to study human diseases. Nevertheless, the course of human and porcine toxoplasmosis is much more comparable than that of human and murine toxoplasmosis. For example, severity of infection, transplacental transmission, and interferon-gamma-induced antiparasitic effector mechanisms are similar in pigs and humans. In addition, the se...

Two patients who had a huge pericardial effusion of at least 9 and 14 years' duration caused by cardiac toxoplasmosis are reported. Toxoplasma gondii were seen in the pericardial fluid, and serologic evidence also demonstrated the activity of the infection. These cases illustrate both the need to exclude toxoplasmosis in chronic pericardial effusion of unknown cause and the possibility of seein...

Current therapy for toxoplasmosis with a synergistic combination of pyrimethamine plus sulfadiazine or pyrimethamine plus clindamycin is not always efficacious and is frequently discontinued due to intolerable toxic effects in immunocompromised individuals, particularly those with AIDS. Trovafloxacin, a new fluoroquinolone with potent activity against Toxoplasma gondii, was examined for potenti...

Immunocompromised patients are at risk of developing toxoplasmosis, and although chemotherapy is available, standard treatments are often complicated by severe side effects. Artemisinin is a new highly potent antimalarial drug that has activity against Toxoplasma gondii in vitro. However, artemisinin derivatives have previously been ineffective in vivo using a rat model of toxoplasmosis. In the...

Toxoplasmosis in organ transplant patients can be a result of donor-transmitted infection, or reactivation of latent infection, or de novo infection. Solid organ transplants including heart, liver, kidney, pancreas and small bowel, and hematogenous stem cell transplants have been implicated in the risk of acquiring infection. In contrast to a benign course in immunocompetent individuals, the sp...

Toxoplasmosis, an infectious and inflammatory syndrome, is one of the most important foodborne diseases causing hospitalization and death in U.S.A. Toxoplasma infects nucleated cells including pancreatic and destroys the β cells. Toxoplasma is a Category B classified infection by CDC and NIH, which once infected the organisms reside in tissues in cysts form for the host's lifelong awaiting reac...

Effective primary prevention of congenital toxoplasmosis requires up to date information on locally relevant risk factors for infection in pregnant women. In Naples, risk factors for toxoplasma infection were compared in recently infected women (as assessed by detection of specific IgM in serum) and susceptible, IgG negative women. Recent infection was strongly associated with frequency of cons...